Tangled Up In You
by epicfanspasms
Summary: Marinette and the gang have a group project for history, which they work on at Alya's house. Situations change and it becomes a four-person sleepover. Accidental slut-shaming occurs, and dick jokes abound. Marinette and Adrien are embarrassed to within an inch of their lives, and as their relationship progresses Alya wonders if her plan to get them together will finally bear fruit.
1. Chapter 1

"Can you believe it?" Alya asked incredulously, taking her change from the cashier and pocketing it before turning away from the counter. "So then I said- "

Marinette didn't give her a chance to finish, suddenly grabbing her coat sleeve and pulling her down behind a conveniently placed sandwich board. Alya was so startled she lost her balance and fell on her butt, nearly dropping her sandwich and bottle of water in the process. She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Okay, girl, what has gotten into you? That hurt, you know."

Marinette grimaced, eyes darting in all directions to avoid her best friend's piercing stare. "Sorry, it's just…we need to get out of here."

"Why? I thought we agreed this morning that we wanted to eat here today."

"Umm…" Marinette wracked her brain for an excuse that didn't reveal the real reason she wanted to leave, but was believable enough to coerce Alya into listening. "I just remembered, uh, I hate the food here?" She bit her lip, wishing she had been able to say it more confidently. Alya was never going to buy that.

Sure enough, Alya frowned dubiously. "If that were the reason, you would've mentioned it this morning when I suggested this cafe." Her eyes widened suddenly, a grin surfacing, and in a sing-song tone she asked, "This couldn't have anything to do with a certain cute blonde who happens to frequent this cafe, could it?"

Marinette gaped, flabbergasted. "Y-you knew?!"

"Of course, you forget that I know all. Besides, why do you think I would suggest this place when your parents' food is clearly far superior? I heard from Nino that he and Adrien eat here all the time."

Marinette buried her head in her hands and moaned. "I can't believe you'd do this to me!"  
Alya bumped her with a shoulder. "And I can't believe you're not singing my praises right now. Come on, this is the perfect opportunity for you to spend some time with him."

"No. No way. I'm not emotionally prepared for this, Alya. Let's just go."

"Uh-uh, there is no way in hell I am going back into that cold until I absolutely have to. Besides, you'll be fine." Alya gently patted Marinette's hair, trying to reassure her. "Look, Nino and I will be there as a buffer. I promise it won't be awkward, so you can't pass up this chance!"

Marinette's mouth settled into a determined frown. "Yes, I can! Alya, there's no way I can eat in front of him. I'd probably get too nervous and choke to death on my food!"

"Then he can give you CPR. Clever girl."

"ALYA!" Marinette shouted as loudly as she dared, not wanting to be overheard by the boys she was currently trying to avoid.

The bespectacled girl tugged on her elbow, pulling them both back to standing. She brushed off her behind before pressing her hand against her chest, the other carefully balancing her lunch. "Trust Mama Alya. You'll be fine! Now let's go ask to sit with them." She grabbed Marinette's hand in an iron grip, knowing there was no way the smaller girl could escape her and reveling in the fact that things were working out just as she had planned.

Marinette tried to tug herself free while maintaining a hold on her lunch at the same time, face bright red as moans of protest vibrated out of her. Finally realizing the futility of her actions when they were a mere five feet away from the boys, she gave up. "I'm going to kill you," she muttered to her companion, at least half meaning it.

"Promises, promises." Alya sent her an evil grin, before stopping in front of the boys' table.

"Hey, guys!" Nino exclaimed a bit too happily, quickly grabbing his stuff and moving around the table to take the chair next to Adrien. As she sat down across from the teenage DJ, Marinette sent him a glare, and his answering smirk confirmed her suspicious that he had been Alya's partner in crime in the ruse.

 _My friends are the worst,_ Marinette thought to herself as she shucked off her scarf and coat. Even though she was frustrated with being forced into the situation, she couldn't deny that the thought of eating lunch with her crush set her tummy pleasantly aflutter with butterflies. As she peeled her banana, her classmates started chattering about Nino and Adrien's sleepover plans for later that day, and Marinette zoned out. The topic didn't concern her so instead of listening she elected to focus on chewing her food carefully, so that she wouldn't actually make a fool of herself by choking as she had joked earlier.

"Marinette! Pay attention, would you?"

At the sound of her best friend's voice, Marinette's head snapped up, a blush already starting to appear on her cheeks. Embarrassed for being caught so obviously not paying attention, she avoided the boys' eyes as she answered Alya shyly. "Sorry, I was thinking about something else. What did I miss?"

Alya huffed, shooting her a look that seemed to say that she knew exactly what Marinette had been thinking about. Crossing her arms, she repeated what she'd been saying for the third time. "I _said_ that you shouldn't forget about this afternoon."

"Oh." Marinette thought that over for a few seconds, before drawing a blank. Anticipating her friend's wrath, she asked nervously, "Umm, what was this afternoon again?"

Snickers sounded from the boy's side of the table, and she turned to send Nino another glare as Alya started to reply. "Marinette, come on," Alya said, sounding completely exasperated. "We're all getting together at my house today to work on our group project for history. We planned this days ago, where have you been?"

 _Of course._ Marinette mentally slapped herself. _Get it together, Mari, think about things other than Adrien and his perfect smile and gorgeous eyes, oh and his fantastic hair-_

"MARINETTE!" Alya smacked her lovesick friend on the arm. "For real girl, I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, but you need to come back down to Earth long enough for us to at least finish the assignment later."

Turning a red that would put any tomato to shame, Marinette nodded mutely, avoiding the other girl's judgmental stare. Unconsciously, her eyes flicked towards Adrien, and she was graced with a sympathetic smile from the boy. She smiled back in surprise, slightly relieved to see that he didn't seem to be thinking about how weird she was or anything.

After finishing the rest of their food and putting their heavy winter coats back on, the kids braved the biting cold to head back to school, mainly discussing the unusually long winter they'd been having. It was already a week and a half into March and the cold showed no intent of letting up. With the icy wind at their backs, it seemed to take much longer than usual to get back, but when they finally arrived at the school, they arranged to meet on the front steps after the final bell to walk to Alya's house together. With a few waves, the boys left for the next class, leaving the girls alone in the hall.

Marinette immediately grabbed Alya by the shoulders and pushed her into a nearby bathroom. Once she had ascertained that they were alone, she let the calm demeanor she'd been forcing since the cafe fall and started freaking out. Alya simply stood there, waiting out the storm, as her best friend paced with her arms flailing wildly.

"I can't believe I forgot about the project! I can't do this, I haven't had time to prepare myself!"

Alya rolled her eyes and said wryly, "Gee, that doesn't sound familiar at all." As Marinette shot her a scowl, Alya sighed and walked over to her hyperventilating friend to wrap a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"I can't do this!" Marinette whined again, burying her face in her hands as all the ways she could embarrass herself by being near Adrien started flashing through her mind.

"Yes you can," Alya told her firmly. She turned Marinette to face her and gripped both of her shoulders gently. "Girl, you are so ready for this! You did fine on the walk back to school and at lunch, not counting the whole zoning-out thing. Besides, Adrien is a good guy, so even if you happen to do something a little bit embarrassing he'll be sweet to you."

Alya's pep-talk returned a little of Marinette's confidence. _She's right,_ she reassured herself. _You can totally do this. You're friends with Adrien, after all, you should be able to handle just working on a group project with him. Besides, Alya and Nino will be there the whole time._ She frowned, shaking her head. _Actually, knowing them, that will probably make things worse before it makes them better._

Having calmed down significantly, Marinette sighed and suggested that they head to class. Being tardy wouldn't fix the situation, after all. Alya agreed, and the girls headed down the hall to their classroom and settled in at their desks. Marinette pulled her tablet out, figuring if she was going to be distracted with thoughts of her impending doom all throughout class—and she knew she would be—she should at least look like she was paying attention to the lecture. She sighed again as the teacher stepped up to the board and started talking, turning her attention to the clock and beginning to count down the minutes until the last bell.

At the sound of the last bell, Marinette's heart took off like a racehorse gunning for first. She slowly began to pack up her belongings, knowing it was futile to try and put off meeting the boys, but wanting to all the same. Alya tapped her foot impatiently, prompting her to move just the tiniest bit faster, and all too soon her bag was packed, her coat and scarf were in place, and she was being hustled out the door by her best friend.

As the boys came into view, standing at their predetermined meeting spot, Marinette told herself to take deep, even breaths. _Breathing is key,_ she reminded herself, watching a white cloud form in front of her mouth as she slowly exhaled. _As long as you keep breathing, everything will be fine. Probably._

The girls pulled up beside Nino and Adrien and the group started towards the Cesaire household. Alya broke the comfortable silence first, exclaiming, "It's Friday! Who's ready to party?!" At everyone's confused looks, Alya smiled. "No one? Good, because we're not partying until after this bitch of a project is over and done with."

"Language!" Adrien spat out before he could stop himself, blushing a bit and tightening his scarf as Nino and Alya hit him with matching stares, complete with identically raised eyebrows.

"You're far too innocent for your own good, Adrien."

Nino nudged Alya to a stop with his elbow, leaning towards her ear with his hand half-circled around his mouth like he was going to tell her a secret. Making eye contact with Adrien, who had stopped in his tracks and frowned upon seeing the bespectacled boy's evil smirk, he stage-whispered, "You know, he still says H-E-double hockey sticks."

"Nino!"  
"You totally do, bro. Papa Nino has done his best to teach you the ways of a normal teenager, but to no avail. Not my fault you're such an innocent."

Adrien's blush deepened, and he straightened his posture as he resumed walking. "That's not true. I can curse too if I want."

Nino smirked again as he and the girls caught up to his red friend. "No, dude, I don't think you can."

"Yeah?" Adrien took a quick breath, thrusting his chin up confidently. He set his jaw, then declared, "Shit."

Nino and Alya stared at him, not saying anything, and their eyes weighed heavy on the boy's conscience. Marinette stared too, peering at him across the Nino-Alya buffer, and in her eyes he saw her disbelief that he had actually done it. The guilt was too much.

"T-take mushrooms. Shiitake mushrooms. They're, uh, delicious?" Adrien hung his head, stubbornly refusing to meet his best friend's gaze.

"Weak sauce, dude."

"Shut up, Nino," Adrien muttered without spirit. He snuck another glance across the group at Marinette, noting the small smile that played on her lips and cheering up a bit. Even if it was because of his embarrassment, he was happy he had made her smile, which he thought didn't happen often enough. It was nice, and he decided he'd like to do that more frequently.

It was at that moment that the teens arrived at Alya's house. The three visitors waited patiently as their hostess unlocked the door, filing in like obedient ducklings following their mother after she opened it. They shucked off their shoes and winter gear then headed towards the dining room, along the way covering their ears as Alya shouted to see if anyone was home.

"Fantastic, we have the place to ourselves, kids. We shouldn't waste this golden opportunity for silence, but before we get started would anyone like a snack?"

Nino grinned devilishly. "I'd love something to eat. Go make me a sandwich."  
Marinette gaped. She knew that Nino and Alya had had a bit of a "thing" going on recently, but to talk to her like that took guts even Marinette herself only had on an occasional basis. Her feminist friend didn't take kindly to remarks like that, sometimes even if they were just jokes.

Luckily for Nino, Alya knew a flirt when she saw one, and liked this one enough to flirt back. She fired back instantly. "Go chop me some lumber."

"What? There are no trees here I could chop, and besides I don't even have an axe."

Alya crossed her arms, seemingly unimpressed. "There are plenty of trees around, and a real man wouldn't need an axe."

Nino threw his hands up in exasperation. "They're too big! And that makes no sense."

"Right. You'd need to use smaller wood."

Marinette grinned and Adrien winced at the implication of that line, but Nino wasted no time sending Alya a wink followed by, "Well, I am used to working with a different type of wood."

At this, Adrien and Marinette both turned red. Of the four, they were the two most innocent when it came to things like this, and both were suddenly feeling as though they might be behind the curve even more than they'd previously thought. How far exactly, they wondered, had Alya and Nino's "thing" gone?

As the more bashful children continued to blush, Alya lost no time deploying her finishing blow. "Right, different wood," she pretended to agree with Nino, until an evil smile bloomed on her face. "Smaller wood." She held her hand out to Marinette for a high five, which the pigtailed girl returned with a grin. Innocent or not, Marinette could still appreciate a good dick-joke related burn once in a while.

"Anyways," Alya moved on as Nino continued to flounder silently for a comeback, "Marinette and I are going to go get some snacks. You guys can go ahead and spread out your stuff on the table." She and Marinette headed through the doorway into the next room to find something to nourish their ever-hungry teenage bellies with.

Adrien dutifully took a seat at the large table, beginning to unpack his bag as his best friend slowly sank down into the seat beside him with a strange look on his face. Concerned, he asked, "Nino, you okay?"

Nino shook his head, then nodded, looking somewhat starstruck. "Dude." He turned to Adrien, with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Bro, I think I'm in love."

Adrien almost choked. "What?"

"Yeah." Nino sighed happily. "That girl's fiery. Not many girls can keep up with the master, but she has no trouble bulldozing me, much less simply keeping up."

Adrien raised a brow, and in a teasing voice asked, "That's what does it for you, huh? Being verbally whipped into submission?"

"Shut up. You're the one with the polka dot kink."

Alya zoomed back into the room, as though she'd been summoned by the mere mention of Ladybug's signature look. She set a plate of cookies on the table, putting her hands on her hips. "Who has a polka dot kink? Besides me, of course."

Marinette, who had entered just after her best friend, was extremely disturbed from having witnessed the wink that Alya sent Nino after that last sentence. As she set the tray of drinks she had been carrying on the table, she shuddered, shooing away mental images of what Alya could possibly be implying with a remark like that.

Nino winked back, once again throwing his brother-from-another-mother under the bus. "Adrien."

"I do not!"

"Dude, you so do."

Alya set a hand on Adrien's shoulder. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Agreste. Most of Paris has one at this point."

Adrien's blush might've been warming his face, but it was setting Marinette on fire. _Adrien Agreste likes me!_ she squealed in her head, heart fluttering in her chest. _Well, Adrien likes Ladybug. But I am Ladybug, so by liking Ladybug he likes me by extension!_ Suddenly, she'd never been happier to work on a history project. Alya was right, it was like having a free pass to hang out with Adrien. She silently thanked Tikki for lending her the good luck that had probably had a hand in her being put in Adrien's group.

Alya clapped her hands together, snapping Marinette out of her thoughts, and announced, "Okay. Now that we've crossed 'embarrass Adrien' off the list, the next thing we need to do is this damn project."

She shot a glance at Adrien, smirking as she waited for him to reprimand her for her use of language again, and he intentionally bit his tongue. He wouldn't give her the pleasure. _That's Nino's job, after all,_ he thought to himself with a smirk of his own, before he flipped his book open to begin working.

The dining room quieted as the teens began to work intently on their parts of the project, only occasional questions about content and phrasing breaking the comfortable silence. Lost in her duties, everything else slipped away and Marinette managed to ignore Adrien's normally overwhelming presence as the world disappeared from around her.

Two hours later, the teens were busy putting the finishing touches on their project when they were interrupted by a shrill ringtone. They all reached for their phones out of habit, and when Alya discovered that hers was the one making the noise, she pushed her chair away from the table to stand.

"It's my mom. Sorry, guys, I gotta take this. Keep working without me, I'll be right back."

Marinette panicked for a second, breath hitching as she realized that half of her buffer was leaving her. She'd been doing okay with Adrien, heck, she was even starting to be able to consistently manage full sentences without stuttering, but she was unnerved by the sudden change in the group's balance.

 _It'll be fine,_ she reassured herself. _Alya won't be gone that long, and in the meantime you still have Nino to-_

Nino shot out of his seat. "Well, I suddenly have to pee. Which way to the bathroom? This way? Okay, be right back!" The boy sent a quick wink to Marinette, who could only gape in response, too shocked by his outburst to form a protest.

Internally, however was a different story. A much less G-rated story. _I will never forgive them_ , she seethed. _"Nino and I will be there as a buffer" my ass!_

Her thoughts about the lecture she was going to give her conniving friends later were interrupted by the clearing of a throat. She jolted upright, amazingly having forgotten about Adrien's presence for a minute. She turned towards him and saw he wore a concerned expression.

"Are you okay, Mari?"

Her heart fluttered. _Oh, Adrien, please always say my name. It sounds so nice when you do._ She nodded slowly, giving the boy a shy smile. "Yeah, sorry, I just thought of something unpleasant for a second."

"Ah. You looked angry, so I just wanted to check…"

"Sorry, sorry. I wasn't angry, just, uh, distracted."

"Oh. Okay."

An awkward pause ensued as the two remaining teens silently worked on finalizing their project, each trying to come up with a way to diffuse the tension between them. Marinette was too busy panicking to think clearly, and Adrien was still somewhat under the impression that Marinette didn't like him and was silent for fear of accidentally offending her.

They both thought Nino was taking the longest bathroom break ever.

Thankfully, albeit suspiciously, their two missing friends suddenly reappeared together, each looking a little ruddier and more rumpled than before. Marinette tried not to think about what they had been doing while she and Adrien had been floundering alone.

"Hey, you guys finished it!" Was it Marinette's imagination, or did Alya sound a bit more out of breath than usual?

 _Stop it,_ she told herself with a shudder. _You really don't want to know the answer to that question._

"That's perfect timing, because I actually just got some great news!" Alya grinned devilishly, sharing a meaningful look with her partner in crime. Marinette's stomach swirled nervously upon seeing that look, only swirling harder when Alya presented the reason for her excitement. "My mom just called, as you know, and apparently she's going out of town suddenly for some hotel emergency and won't be back until tomorrow evening." Alya's eyebrows wiggled suggestively.

Marinette frowned, not sure she liked where this was going. "But what about your sisters?"

"Mom reminded me that they're off at an overnight science camp for school this weekend. We'll have the whole place to ourselves."

"We?" Adrien asked innocently.

Nino clapped him on the shoulder. "Yup. Change of plans bro, we're officially moving our sleepover to La Casa de Cesaire."

Adrien looked somewhat uncomfortable, but his voice still held a hint of excitement. "Uh, I don't think my dad would like that." Suddenly his face settled into a surprisingly devilish grin, one that gave Nino a run for his money. "No, I know he wouldn't. Let's do it!"

 _I never knew Adrien could make a face like that,_ Marinette thought with a shiver, _but I hope he does it again soon._

"Attaboy!" Alya reached over to ruffle his hair. "Mari, you just have to let your parents know you're staying over and we'll be all set to par-tay."

"Sure. I'm just going to, you know, go to your room and c-call them." She got up and as she passed Alya muttered, "And also scream into your pillow for at least a minute, okay thanks bye." Without waiting for a response she dashed out of the dining room.

As soon as the tiny girl was out of sight, Alya leaned her head back and let out an impressive evil cackle. Nino rubbed his hands together, looking absolutely delighted at the turn of events. For his part, Adrien just sat there and smiled, not entirely sure what was going on but figuring that if having a sleep over with one of his best friends was fun, doing it with three was sure to be a blast. Plus, he and Marinette were making real progress in the area of conversation, at least as long as their other friends were present, and he was actually really enjoying getting to know the girl better.

The girl in question returned moments later, a bit red in the face and almost imperceptibly hoarser, but wearing a smile as she informed the group that she had been given permission to stay the night. She needed to return home to get her overnight stuff, but that was a simple matter since she lived fairly close to Alya's. It was decided that they would all walk over there together, and hopefully score some delicious pastries in the process.

And so, shoes and coats in place and once again trailing behind their mama duck, they headed towards the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Adrien was particularly excited for the excursion. His model diet didn't really allow for sweets and he figured he could count on Tom and Sabine's ever present hospitality for help in getting something deliciously sugary into himself.

When they arrived at the bakery there was a large crowd inside, as though all of the people who had just gotten off of work had unanimously decided that a delicious dessert was needed to celebrate the end of another long week. Seeing this, the kids decided to forgo the main entrance in favor of the side door that led straight to Marinette's home. As they headed up the stairs, they ran into a descending Sabine, who was headed back down to the bakery.

"Hello, dears! What a nice surprise, I didn't expect to see Nino and Adrien today," the tiny woman said warmly, her smile brightening up the small hall. The three visiting teens each gave a "Hello, Mrs. Cheng," to which Sabine, as always, replied they simply must call her Sabine.

Marinette grabbed her mom in a hug. "We were working on our history project together, and they volunteered to walk over with us before going back to Nino's later." She felt a twinge of guilt at how easily the lie rolled off her tongue. Being Ladybug had miraculously increased and decreased her scruples at the same time. "We won't be staying long, Maman."

"Well, I hope you all stay long enough to have some of the cake I left out for you," Sabine said with a smile, squeezing her daughter and planting a kiss atop her head.

Adrien's eyes widened, and he chanted in his head, _Say yes, eat cake. Say yes, eat cake. Say yes-_

"Thanks, Maman, we will." Adrien clenched his fist as the words left Marinette's mouth, happy that his subliminal messaging had worked. "I'll come say goodbye to Papa before going back to Alya's."

They parted ways and the teens headed up the rest of the stairs to the main living area, carefully removing their shoes as they entered. Adrien and Nino zoomed towards the counter as soon as they laid eyes on the cake, barely able to remember their manners enough to ask their hostess if they could have some.

"Of course," Marinette answered, giggling. "Help yourselves, and there's milk in the fridge if you want it. I won't be long." She headed up the stairs to her room, Alya trailing behind her as the boys dug into the cake.

"Okay." Alya collapsed dramatically onto Marinette's lounge chair as the pigtailed girl gently closed her trap door. "You can start singing my praises now."

Marinette smiled and jokingly folded her hands. "Oh Saint Alya, patron saint of teenage crushes, thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Please give me favor and help me to get closer to Adrien tonight."

Alya propped herself up on her elbows and send Marinette a suggestive smirk, complete with wiggling eyebrows. "Sure thing, now exactly how much closer are we talking?"

Below them, they boys were happily devouring their cake and swigging down milk when they were surprised by a sudden shriek, followed by several thumps. They glanced at each other and Nino shrugged out a "Girl stuff?" before they both returned to their desserts.

Marinette, momentarily satisfied that Alya had been hit with enough pillows to atone for her sins, went back to the issue at hand. She tossed into her bag some clothes for the next day, a hairbrush, toothbrush, and toothpaste, but became stuck when she went to grab her night clothes. Nibbling on her lower lip, she sighed softly. "Hey Alya," she began hesitantly, "Uh, what pajamas are you going to wear tonight?"

"Hmm?"

Marinette blushed, having to repeat her question. "You know, what are you going to wear to sleep in?"

"Oh, I dunno. Didn't really think about it." She stroked her chin, giving the thought some consideration. "Something comfortable and warm, hmm, but easy to get out of," she finished, giving Marinette a sly wink.

The girl blushed deeper, squealing, "Alya!" before smacking her friend with another pillow.

Alya laughed, moving to a sitting position and patting the spot next to her on the chaise. Once Marinette had taken a seat, Alya slipped an arm around her shoulder, telling her, "Look, Mari, it's not that big of a deal. The boys won't care what you wear and you'll look cute no matter what. Just wear something that makes you feel comfy and confident, because that's really what's most important."

Marinette gave her reporter friend a sideways hug. "You're right. Thanks, Alya."

"Now, let's discuss what you're going to wear _under_ the pajamas."

The boys were startled by the reappearance of the loud noises coming from upstairs. Both considered going upstairs to check on the girls, but decided that might not be the wisest decision from the sound of it. They chose to have another slice of cake each instead.

Two minutes later, Alya came down wearing a satisfied smirk and looking considerably more disheveled than before. Marinette, for her part, was still put together but was wearing a blush that had not been there when she ascended the stairs previously.

"A-are you guys about ready?" Marinette questioned, gripping the strap of her bag nervously as the boys began shoveling the remains of their cake into their mouths. Nino gave her an affirmative thumbs up as he gulped down the last of his milk, and Adrien nodded as he wiped his mouth delicately with a napkin.

After the boys had washed their dishes, Marinette lead the group back down the stairs, this time heading through the inside door that connected to the warm bakery. Tom saw the kids come in, and rushed to scoop his tiny daughter up in a big bear hug.

"Hello, sweetheart!" His mustache wiggled as he smiled at his daughter's friends. "And hello to the rest of you, as well. I hope you enjoyed the cake Sabine left upstairs for you."

Nino and Adrien nodded enthusiastically, singing praises about the treat that they had happily demolished.

"Good, good! Well, Marinette, have fun tonight. Do you know what time you'll be home tomorrow?"

Marinette tried to control her blush as she said carefully, "Actually, Papa, we were thinking of going swimming tomorrow, so I'm not sure what time we'll be done." The girl glanced at her friends, unsurprised to find that while Adrien looked like this was news to him, Nino was exchanging a knowing glance with Alya. _As expected,_ she thought with a sigh. _They planned this together without telling me or Adrien until the last minute. At least Alya warned me upstairs, because there's no way I could fill out one of her suits._

Tom nodded agreeably, setting Marinette down before giving her a kiss on the cheek and telling her again to have fun. Marinette promised she would and, with a goodbye wave to her parents, led her friends out of the bakery to begin the journey back to Alya's house.


	2. Chapter 2

_I realized that I neglected to introduce myself in the first chapter, so hello! I'm Nikon, and this is my first multi-chapter fic ever. I'm currently uploading it on my tumblr and AO3 as well, and up to chapter 5 is out on those. I will be catching up here over the next few days by posting one chapter a day, and then this will probably update about once a week like the others do. If you're interested, you can find my names for those in my profile. I love hearing feedback, so feel free to leave a review or PM me! Hope you enjoy :)_

"So," Alya began as the group entered her house and once again busied themselves with shucking off their outer clothes, "I know it's a bit late and you boys just ate cake, but what should we do for dinner?"

"I could whip something up for us. What do you have in the fridge?"

Everyone turned to face Nino in surprise at his offer. No one had expected the young DJ to have any prowess in cooking since it seemed like he was all about music all the time.

"You can cook?" Adrien's voice was filled with admiration. He was a little jealous. He had always wanted to learn how to cook at least basic meals, but his father insisted he spend his time on activities more "befitting his standing" or whatever.

"Yeah, man. I make a mean omelet, among other things."

"American breakfast for dinner, I like it." Alya nodded, pursing her lips in thought. "Okay, you make the omelets and I'll work on some pancakes." She blinked innocently at Marinette as she said, "Mari, you and Adrien can start setting up pillows and blankets in the living room. You know where they are in my closet, right?"

Marinette wasn't sure whether to thank her or throttle her. She tried to keep her voice steady and blush light as she replied, "Yeah, sure thing. Come on, Adrien."

The teens split up, Nino and Alya giggling their way to the kitchen as Marinette and Adrien walked together in silence towards Alya's room. Marinette steadied her breathing, reminding herself that Adrien was her friend and she needed to be able to converse with him easily. She struggled to think of something to say as she opened Alya's door and headed to the closet, but before she could come up with anything, Adrien broke the silence.

"This is actually my first time having a sleepover with anyone other than Nino." He smiled sweetly at her, and her heart soared as she returned the grin, busily stacking blankets on his outstretched arms.

"Yeah. I mean, I've had sleepovers with people besides Alya, but this is definitely my first time having one with guys."

Adrien looked confused. "Oh? I would've figured for sure that a popular girl like you had had sleepovers with just about everyone."

Had it been anyone but innocent, home-schooled Adrien saying that to her, Marinette probably would've decked them. As it was, she almost dropped the pillow she had grabbed. Taking a deep breath, she figured Adrien just wasn't up to date on the implications of sleepovers between opposite sexes. She blushed as she tried to think of the best way to explain the meaning of what he'd just said.

"Umm, Mari?" Adrien's shy voice interrupted her thoughts. "I didn't say anything weird did I?" He looked at her with a nervous smile. "Sorry, it's just, you started blushing suddenly but I wasn't sure if it was something I said or not."

"No, well, I mean yes, but it's okay. I figured you probably didn't even realize what you said." Adrien shook his head, and she blushed, turning to grab another pillow as she figured out how to phrase what she had to say.

She turned back to Adrien, clearing her throat. "Okay, basically, boys and girls don't really have sleepovers together, except maybe sometimes when they're little kids." Adrien still looked confused, so she surged onwards. "So, like, a boy and a girl having a sleepover at our age, for example, kind of implies that they're doing _something_ , if you catch my drift."

Clearly, Adrien did not catch her drift, because he simply stared at her blankly.

With a sigh, Marinette set the pillows she was holding on the bed next to her and reached up to grab Adrien's shoulders with a light blush. Looking him straight in the eye, she said, "Listen carefully, because I'm sure I can only manage to say this once without combusting. When a boy and a girl have a sleepover, it's usually because they want to have sex. So, what you said about me being popular and having sleepovers with everyone basically implies that you think that I-" She didn't get a chance to finish.

Adrien turned what was probably a yet-undiscovered shade of red. He interrupted Marinette mid sentence with a wide eyed "Oh my gosh I'm so, so sorry!" Flustered, he flailed his arms in an effort to apologize and managed to drop all of the blankets. He didn't seem to notice this as he grabbed Marinette's hands in his, provoking the girl into deepening the blush she'd had going from explaining the situation.

She was about to reassure him, when he interrupted her again. "Really, Marinette," he said sincerely, trying and failing to maintain eye contact. "I can't believe I said something like that about you. I feel awful, I'm so sorry."

By some miracle, Marinette managed a giggle. Then a chuckle. Finally, she exploded into full-on peals of laughter. Adrien stared for a minute, but her delight was infectious and he soon found himself laughing along with her. They laughed uproariously until tears came out of their eyes and their stomachs ached, and then they laughed some more at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.

Alya and Nino found them there several minutes later, lying on the floor next to each other, holding their stomachs and still twitching with snickers when they looked at each other and remembered what had transpired.

"Okay, what exactly happened here?" Alya nudged the fallen blankets with a socked foot. "You guys were supposed to have brought these to the living room like twenty minutes ago."

Adrien made the mistake of looking at Marinette and accidentally made eye contact, sending them both back into hysterics. He managed to calm himself down and studiously avoided the pigtailed girl's eyes so he could properly explain their position. "I may or may not have totally called Marinette a—What was it again, Mari? Oh, right—a 'party favor'."

Marinette snickered next to him, and he gently jabbed her with an elbow before succumbing to chuckles himself. Alya and Nino stared on in somewhat shocked silence.

"Okay, dude, rewind. What the hell happened that ended with you calling our innocent Mari something like that?" Nino turned his gaze to the girl on the floor. "If I need to beat him up or something, Mar, just let me know."

"Nino it's fine," Marinette said somewhat breathlessly as she tried to sit up. Her ab muscles hurt too much from the laughter, so she gave up and let herself splay out on the floor again.

"I swear it was an accident. I didn't know what I was saying."

"Yeah, he really didn't. He didn't realize what it normally means when a boy and girl have a sleepover and he was surprised I'd never had a sleepover with a boy before because he figured I'm so popular I would've had one with everyone already."

"Shit, Adrien, I can't believe you said that."

"Language, Alya! And I can't help it, I've been homeschooled my whole life. I didn't know this wasn't a normal thing!"

Nino chuckled at his best friend's embarrassment. "Dude, you really didn't have any idea why Marinette told her parents that you and I were going back to my place? They probably wouldn't have appreciated hearing their only daughter was going to be sleeping in the same room as two guys with no supervision."

Now that he thought about it, Adrien supposed that made a lot of sense. He felt kind of silly for not realizing it before, but decided that being homeschooled allowed him to get away with not knowing these kinds of things.

"Anyways, if you guys are done rolling around down there, the food is ready and getting cold." Alya tried to sound serious, but the scene that laid before her was so cute she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she hummed to herself, _I knew Mari had it in her. They are so cute together._

"Speaking of the food, I thought of a joke earlier. What did the geologist eat for breakfast?" Adrien glanced at his friends with an excited smile, not even waiting for a response before he told them the answer. "Pangea-cakes!"

Nino wasted no time in grabbing a pillow off of the bed and lobbing it at his best friend's head while the girls groaned at the bad joke. Secretly, Marinette was thinking to herself that she needed to tell Chat that joke sometime.

"Geez, you guys have no sense of humor." With a pained sigh, Adrien pushed himself off the floor, ignoring the ache that radiated from his abdomen. He reached down towards Marinette to help her up as well as he said over his shoulder, "Anyways, we're sorry, Alya. We really didn't mean to get so distracted."

Marinette, cheeks newly pinked from Adrien's gentlemanly actions, murmured an apology of her own as she reached down to begin gathering the fallen blankets. She stacked them on Adrien's arms once again before grabbing the pillows off of Alya's bed and the floor and heading for the door, friends trailing behind her.

When they arrived in the living room, Marinette and Adrien distributed the pillows and blankets so everyone could make a comfortable seat for themselves around the coffee table. The omelets and pancakes, as promised, were waiting and warm, getting Adrien's mouth watering before he even sat down.

Once everyone was comfortable, Alya demanded they all dig in. She didn't have to ask twice, and half of the food was gone within minutes. Too focused to talk, the teens scarfed down enough food to take the edge off their hunger before they even considered conversation.

"That's ridiculous!" Nino sounded deeply offended at Alya's previous statement. "A giraffe scarf would obviously have to cover the entire neck. You couldn't just slap a human scarf on it, it would hardly cover anything and would just look silly!"

"Oh, and a super long scarf wrapped from head to torso wouldn't?"

Marinette jumped into the fray. "And that's why I was thinking that it makes more sense to make it a tube. Then if you add ties at either end you can adjust it so that it stays on and covers the whole thing."

Nino pointed animatedly across the table. "See, THAT is what I'm talking about! That makes infinitely more sense than just one long strip of fabric, and can be both fashionable and functional." He leaned forward to high-five Marinette, telling her seriously, "You will go far in the world of giraffe scarves, girl."

"Thanks, I think."

"Okay, but I think we can all agree what the real question is here," Adrien said, redirecting everyone's attention towards him. "What pattern would the scarf have? Like, would it be giraffe patterned to blend in, a solid color, or something different?"

The rest of the group gave serious consideration to the question. As the other two continued to deliberate, Alya voiced her opinion first.

"I think they should be offered in a wide variety of patterns. Giraffe should definitely be one, but how fucking funny would it be to see a giraffe wearing a cheetah or zebra print scarf?"

"Language!" Marinette and Adrien scolded in unison, laughing as they gave each other a high five at their accidental conjunction.

Alya snorted in fake annoyance, secretly admiring how her friends were getting along. _I can't believe Mari is so comfortable with him now. I guess the "party favor" incident earlier really took the edge off for her._

"Okay." The young hostess clapped her hands together to get her friends' attention. "Let's clean these dishes up so we can get to the good stuff."

As she worked on washing the dishes and passing them to Nino to dry, Marinette wondered with a bit of apprehension what exactly "the good stuff" was going to entail. _Knowing Alya, it's probably strip Uno or something._ She crossed her fingers that her friend wasn't planning anything too embarrassing, but didn't plan on holding her breath for that wish to come true.

Once the dishes were done, the teens headed back to the living room, pushing the coffee table aside so they could all spread out on the floor in a circle. The three guests turned to their hostess, awaiting Mama Alya's instructions.

"I was thinking we should play some games, at least to start us off. How do you guys feel about strip Uno?"

 _Called it,_ Marinette thought wryly, even as a blush arose on her cheeks.

Adrien turned a slight pink as well, biting his lip at the suggestion. He looked at his best friend to gauge his reaction, but Nino was busy staring at Alya with a knowing smile, not looking the least bit perturbed by the suggestion. Adrien thought he might actually be gunning for some form of stripping game, maybe even one that involved only him and Alya.

Alya shook her head at her innocent friends, as though anticipating their protests from their blushes. "Alright, fine, we won't do that." She sent a wink to Nino, with a murmured, "But maybe later."

Marinette tried to change the subject quickly. "How about just some good old Ultimate Mega Strike?"

"Nah, you and Adrien will own that and Alya and I will just be sitting on our hands." Nino stopped his head mid-shake with an appraising look. "Actually, I changed my mind, I am totally down for that."

Unfortunately for him, after seeing that look on his face Marinette and Adrien no longer wanted to battle it out on the popular game.

Hesitantly, Adrien offered a suggestion. "Uh, Alya, if you have a Wii, I brought Mario Kart to play with Nino. We could play that instead, it's a lot of fun."

Marinette nodded rapidly, knowing that this way everyone could play on a relatively equal level and there would be no hanky-panky happening in the background.

Alya sighed, but agreed to the idea. "Okay, I'll start setting up the console if you'll grab that."

When he returned, game disc in hand, poor, innocent Adrien asked a deadly question. "Hey, Nino. I had my stuff with me when we came here since I was supposed to sleep over at your place, but you didn't bring anything and you never went home to get an overnight bag like Mari did. What are you going to wear to sleep in tonight?"

Nino's suggestive wink was more of an answer than he had ever wanted, and Adrien mentally kicked himself for not seeing it coming. The room suddenly felt ten times hotter as he witnessed his bud and Alya exchanging meaningful glances and winks.

"OKAY, wow I forgot how badly I wanted to change into my pajamas, I'm going to go do that RIGHT NOW!" Marinette hurriedly spat out, jumping up from her spot on the floor and rushing out of the room.

"Oh, boy, what a great idea, Marinette, I think I'll do that as well, yup, gonna go change be right back!" Adrien zoomed out of the room after the tiny girl, unable to escape fast enough. He saw her snatch up her overnight bag and book it over to Alya's room, so he decided to change in the bathroom and take his dear sweet time about it to avoid whatever was going on in the living room.

Back in the living room, as Nino chuckled over their friends' discomfort, Alya slid closer to him and slipped her arms up around his neck. The boy grinned, quickly moving to place his hands around her waist and tug her even closer.

Alya smiled up flirtatiously, fingers gently drawing patterns along the back of Nino's neck. "Adrien does bring up a good point though." Nino raised an eyebrow, and in a slightly husky voice, Alya murmured, "What are you going to wear to sleep in tonight?"

Nino winked at the girl. "Oh, don't worry. You'll find out later." As Alya giggled, he leaned down to plant a sweet kiss on her lips, deciding to take advantage of every moment he had alone with his…whatever she was. They hadn't really defined their relationship beyond a "thing" at that point, but he was hoping that the sleepover would help him move into official boyfriend territory.

That was the scene Adrien ended up watching awkwardly a few minutes later as he hovered outside of the living room entrance, unsure if he should interrupt his friends or run away. He was still debating what to do when he heard tiny, socked feet padding up behind him.

As Adrien turned around to ask Marinette what she thought would be the best course of action, he had his breath stolen away. He hadn't given much thought as to what Marinette would be wearing to sleep, mostly afraid of accidentally crossing a boundary and imagining her in something inappropriate, but he definitely had not been prepared for the sight that lay before him. Marinette was looking absolutely adorable in a giant Chat Noir onesie, and Adrien couldn't stop staring. Partially, he was amazed and flattered that someone liked his alter-ego enough to put in the hard work to make something so cool, but the other part of him was definitely dumb-struck by his sudden realization that gosh, Marinette was actually really cute.

Marinette started to blush under his scrutiny, tugging the hood of her pajamas lower over her face. "Wh-what do you think?" she asked timidly, biting her bottom lip.

Adrien's smile was so big that it made his cheeks hurt. "I love it!" Marinette looked up and smiled widely back at him as he praised her creation. "Seriously, that's so cool, I can't believe it. You made it yourself right? It's so well done, and it looks really comfy and warm." He chuckled, gesturing at his plain long sleeve t-shirt and flannel pajama pants. "I'm totally jealous, my pajamas aren't nearly as cool or cozy."

 _This is it!_ Marinette told herself. _You can offer to make him one, that's a great excuse to spend time with him. Just choose your words carefully and don't say anything weird, you got this!_

"You want one? I could make one for you."

 _Nailed it!_ She did a mental victory dance as she thought, _Now just keep your mouth shut until he answers and then-_

"Oh, wait, I bet you'd prefer a Ladybug themed one. You know, what with your polka dot kink and all," Marinette continued, giving a sly wink to the now blushing boy.

 _Noooooooo! I'm ruined, my life is over, he's going to hate me now._ Marinette sighed. _Well, it was nice while it lasted._

Unaware of Marinette's inner turmoil, Adrien responded as calmly as he could manage in his embarrassment. "Well, I would prefer a Ladybug one, if you're serious about the offer. But I still refuse to admit to having a polka dot kink."

"Just because you won't admit to it, doesn't mean it isn't true."

Adrien jumped about a foot in the air. "Holy shoot, Alya, where the fudge did you come from?!"

"Adrien, repeat after me. Holy shit. Fuck."

"Holy sh-shih tzu. Funk."

Alya shook her head and clicked her tongue. "You really are a hopeless case."

"Hey, I don't need to curse to be cool!"

"Okay, moving on." Marinette grabbed Adrien and Alya's hands, pulling them through the doorway into the living room. "Who's ready to get their butt kicked on Rainbow Road?"

"Oh, it is so on!" Nino shouted from the couch, pointing at her. "You are going down, Tiny."

"Not if you go down first, Bubbles!"

"Oh, you bet he will be. Wink, wink."

"ALYA!"

A minute later, from beneath a pile of pillows Alya said, "Hey, pass me a controller so I can kick your asses."

Marinette obeyed the request, tossing her a remote as Adrien navigated through the set-up screens. Everyone argued over who got to play what character and what race they should actually do. Finally, Adrien just closed his eyes and picked randomly, figuring it was the fairest way to settle things. Ironically enough, he landed on Rainbow Road, and Marinette and Nino immediately started trash-talking each other again.

They all lined up at the start of the track, and the game began counting down. When the race started, Adrien's bike sputtered out and his friends all left him in the dust as they began the first lap. Frustrated, he finally got moving along the course, doing his best to catch up. Apparently, though, his Chat Noir bad luck was kicking in, because he kept running into green shells and banana peels.

 _This is probably my payback for leaving Plagg alone all day without restocking his cheese supply,_ he grumbled internally as he fell off the track for the third time. As he watched his character get lapped by his friends, he promised himself he'd check on his kwami once everyone was asleep and find him more cheese.

Meanwhile, Marinette was indeed owning everyone's asses, as she had promised Nino during their trash-talking before the race began. She had a clear path the whole race and never fell off the track, even on the tightest of turns. She cheered as she crossed the finish line in first place, making a mental note to give Tikki an extra cookie later, as that run had seemed unusually lucky.

After Adrien finally finished, expectedly ending up in twelfth place, they picked another race and began anew. They decided they would do three tournaments, and whoever won the most races would be deemed the Mario Kart Master. The next hour was filled with, cheering, jeering, name calling, and death threats. It was definitely the best time Adrien had had in a while, and he couldn't wait to see what was in store for him next at this unusual sleepover.

The tournament ended with Marinette in first place, to no one's surprise. The victorious girl took great pleasure in rubbing her win in Nino's face, hopping up after the final race and doing a particularly adorable victory dance. Adrien smiled as he watched her shake her hips around as she pumped her fists in the air, pajama ears and tail flopping wildly. He had never seen this energetic side of Marinette before so up close because she had always been ridiculously shy around him for some reason. Thankfully, that seemed to have changed for the most part after the whole "party favor" debacle earlier, and Adrien hoped the awkwardness wouldn't return any time soon. He had found he liked this teasing, outgoing Marinette much more than he'd expected.

Marinette collapsed at the completion of her victory dance, lying spread eagled on the floor as she panted slightly from the exertion. She turned her head so she could see Alya. "What now, Mademoiselle Hostess?"

"Hmm, gather round, children, we shall begin another game."

The teens all scooted to form a circle with Alya, eagerly awaiting whatever she had in store for them next, though Marinette and Adrien did so with some trepidation.

"As the hostess, I have decided our next activity. We will be playing…" Alya paused for effect, before waggling her eyebrows as she announced, "Truth or dare."

Marinette's stomach twisted uncomfortably as she began to panic. Knowing Alya, the game was secretly a plot to get Marinette to finally admit to Adrien her feelings for him. She hoped desperately that there was some sort of out she could take if things got too close for comfort.

"Don't look so panicked, guys, you haven't even heard the rules yet." Alya held up a finger for each rule as she listed them. "Number one, no shaming or embarrassing. Number two, no bothering someone if they want to chicken out of a truth or dare."

Marinette sighed in relief. _Alya isn't merciless after all. I may just get out of this alive._

"And most importantly, rule number three. You are allowed to get out of a truth or dare if you don't want to do it, but as penance, you have to remove one piece of clothing. By the way, to up the stakes, socks don't count."

Marinette's heart sank to her toes. She hadn't been planning on a game like this—although knowing Alya as well as she did, she should've been—so she hadn't bothered wearing substantial clothing underneath her onesie. Besides the onesie and her fuzzy socks, she was only wearing a thin camisole and some boy shorts. _I am so screwed! Adrien's either going to find out my feelings, or what I look like without a bra on, and this is so not the scenario I imagined for either!_

While Marinette panicked, Adrien was excited. He had heard about how fun this game was, but had never had the opportunity to play himself. He wasn't concerned about the stripping element—after all he was a model, it was nothing new to him. He couldn't wait to see what he was asked first.

He didn't have to wait long. As soon as she made sure everyone understood the rules, Alya turned to Adrien and asked, "Alright, Agreste, truth or dare?"

"Dare!" he responded enthusiastically, looking forward to seeing what Alya would cook up for him.

"Hmm. How about…I dare you to lick Marinette's neck."

Marinette and Adrien both turned bright red as they looked at each other in surprise. They might've become more comfortable with each other over the course of the evening, but Alya's suggestion had sent them both back into the awkward zone. Neither seemed to know how to respond to the dare.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Adrien opened his mouth, changed his mind and closed it, then opened it again to ask, "Umm, Marinette, would you mind?"

 _Would I mind?_ Marinette's little shoulder-devil purred. _Not at all, you can lick me anywhere you li-_ The thought was cut off as Marinette's shoulder-angel swooped over and knocked out the devil with a tiny frying pan.

"You're so fine!" Marinette said, way too loudly, blushing at her mistake. "I mean that's so fine! I mean…okay."

"Oh, great, thanks."

The two teens chuckled nervously, shifting in their seats as their other friends started chanting softly. "Do it. Do it. Do it."

"Should I-?" Marinette started to ask, accidentally interrupting Adrien's "I'll just-"

They shuffled around for another moment, unsure of how to proceed. Finally, Marinette tugged down the hood of her pajamas and tilted her head away from Adrien, her pigtail sliding away and exposing her neck.

"G-go ahead," she murmured softly, cheeks predictably aflame.

"Th-thanks. Uh, he-here I go."

Marinette tried not to twitch as Adrien slowly moved towards her neck and stuck his tongue out. She had been bracing herself for a ticklish feeling, but when he finally made contact it was nothing like the girl had imagined. As Adrien licked up the length of her neck in one slow, smooth stroke, she had to hold back a gasp as her lower belly was lit on fire. She blushed as she realized she was definitely appreciating the situation in a much more intimate way than she had anticipated.

Adrien was also enjoying the experience way more than he had expected. He was surprised to feel butterflies forming in his stomach as he leaned in towards Marinette. When his tongue finally touched down on the girl's smooth skin, he felt the butterflies double in size and fly a little lower. He was amazed at how pleasurable the experience was, legitimately relishing the feeling and taste of her skin to the point where he found he didn't want to pull away after just one lick.

Ever the gentleman, and not wanting to make his friend any more uncomfortable with his odd desire, Adrien forced himself to pull away once the dare was considered complete. He felt his cheeks flaming, and avoided eye contact with Marinette, instead choosing to stare down at his hands in his lap. Hands which were soon discreetly joined by a pillow.

"Well done, children." Alya sounded proud that both of her friends had been willing to participate in the dare. "Okay, Adrien, now it's your turn to ask someone."

Adrien's head snapped up and he cleared his throat loudly. "Right, sorry." He drummed his fingers against his pillow as he decided who to ask. "Alya, truth or dare?" he questioned, followed quickly by, "Uh, if that's not against the rules since you already asked me."

"It's okay as long as I don't ask you again during my turn. Hit me with your worst dare, Agreste."

"I dare you to not touch or be touched by Nino while Marinette and I are in the same room as you." Adrien thought that had been pretty clever of him, and he was sure things would be less awkward for him and Mari if their friends would keep their hands off each other for a bit.

Almost before Adrien finished his sentence, he was hit in the face by Alya's long sleeve plaid button-down. _Shoot, I forgot about the penance thing,_ he thought, afraid to take the girl's shirt off his head for fear of seeing her in an uncomfortable state of undress. Eventually, he had to brave it, and was relieved to find Alya had been wearing a t-shirt underneath.

"Layers, good for both winter and truth or dare," Alya said by way of explanation. "Alrighty then. Whom shall I choose?"

Marinette crossed her fingers that Alya would choose Nino for her turn. _Not me, not me, not me, plea-_

"Marinette! Truth or dare?"

 _Curses!_ "Umm…" She stalled for time as she tried for figure out which answer would be less catastrophic for her. She was afraid of what Alya might dare her to do, so she sucked in a quick breath and squeaked, "Truth?"

Alya grinned evilly. "Okay, why don't you tell us exactly what you thought of the dare I gave Adrien?"

Marinette turned the color of Adrien's cheeks—that is to say, very, very red. She opened and shut her mouth, looking too mortified to answer.

Adrien was actually hoping that she would answer the question, since he was wondering if she had felt the same thing he did during the dare. His little shoulder-devil piped up, reasoning, _Well, I mean, her losing her clothes would also be nice. Maybe we can do some of that lat-_

One hit from a frying pan—apparently the weapon of choice for shoulder-angels—and Adrien's mind was once again under his control.

Quickly running the logistics of the consequences of telling the truth versus losing some clothes this early in the game, Marinette decided the best choice would be to just bite the bullet and hope that Adrien wasn't weirded out by her reaction. She took a deep breath and pulled the hood of her pajamas back up, avoiding Adrien's eyes. "Umm, I really liked it? I thought it would tickle, but it didn't, it actually felt really…nice. It gave me kind of a fluttery feeling that I liked. Uh, yeah, that's it." She fell over backwards and slammed a pillow over her face, letting out a soft moan of embarrassment.

Adrien had smiled gleefully throughout her confession, excited to hear that he wasn't weird for reacting the way he had. It seemed as though he and Marinette had been on the same page, and he felt like it was unfair to let her be this embarrassed on her own. He leaned down and tried to pry the pillow away from her face, but she held tight and buried herself in it even deeper.

"Noooooo!"

Adrien chuckled at her resistance. _She's so cute,_ he thought, surprising himself. _Did I-? Well, we can come back to that later._ He refocused his attention on the girl next to him, patting her shoulder as he quietly admitted, "Marinette, it's okay, you don't have to be so embarrassed. I reacted pretty much the same way, if that makes you feel any better."

Though she was surprised to hear that from him, Adrien's confession did make Marinette feel better. After all, he couldn't exactly think she was weird if he had had the same reaction. The girl finally removed the pillow from her face and sat up, sharing a small smile with Adrien before she got too embarrassed and had to break eye contact again.

"How…enlightening." Alya grinned, excited that things were going more or less according to her plan. "Alright, Mari, who's next?"

"Well, I suppose it's only fair to ask Nino, since he's the only one who hasn't been asked. Truth or dare, Nino?"

"Truth. Hit me with it, sister."

Marinette decided to go for broke and ask the question that had been bugging her all day. "What exactly is your relationship with Alya? And, if it's not where you want it to be, what kind of relationship do you wish it was?"

Nino gulped, heart beating a bit faster as he realized that this was his "nut up or shut up" moment. He wanted to be Alya's boyfriend and she was about to know it, for better or worse. The boy knew that he could just get out of the question by shrugging his shirt off, but he also knew that if he didn't take the chance now he might never be brave enough to do it.

Alya was looking on with extreme interest, which only amplified his nerves, but Nino went ahead with his answer. "Well, right now we just have a 'thing' going, and we've never really bothered to define it beyond some casual fooling around and flirting. Buuuut," he hedged, face uncharacteristically red, "I realized earlier that I want this to stop being a 'thing' and start being an official relationship. I want to be your boyfriend, Alya."

Alya bit her lip, turning the slightest bit pink. She nodded slowly, speeding up as her face broke out into a grin. "I like the sound of that, Bubbles," she responded, picking up Marinette's affectionate trash-talking nickname from earlier. She leaned over and gave him a long kiss, which he happily returned.

Marinette and Adrien let them have their moment, but after they felt that an appropriate length of time had passed, they both started clearing their throats at intervals, slowly growing louder as their friends continued to ignore them. Eventually, Marinette threw a pillow at Alya and managed to get her to break the kiss.

"I believe it's Nino's turn," Alya stated calmly, as though she hadn't just spent three minutes making out with the boy in front of two of their friends.

"Groovy. Adrien, pick your poison."

"Truth, I guess."

"Perfect." Nino rubbed his hands together in a convincing impression of a movie villain. "Adrien, have you ever seriously thought about kissing our sweet Marinette? And, if you have, please list the occasions."

It was hard to judge who had turned Ladybug-red faster, but Nino's money was on his best bud for once. He grinned at the embarrassment he'd caused, but that was just the icing on the cake. The young DJ had really asked the question in the hope that it would help to move along his friends' relationship a bit since, much like the rest of his classmates, he was a hard-core Adrinette shipper. Alya was actually running a betting pool on when the two would finally get together, and if it happened before April, Nino was in it to win big.

Adrien played with the hem of his shirt, deciding if he wanted to take the easy way out this time. He snuck a glance over at Marinette, surprised to see the bashful interest on her face. She was nibbling on her lower lip with wide eyes, as though she really wanted to hear what his answer was. For whatever reason, knowing that Marinette was interested in his response made him happy, and he decided to go for it.

He started off hesitantly. "Well, I think there have been two times so far?" His eyes widened as he realized that he was implying that there would be more times he thought about kissing Marinette in the future, but with the way things had been going thus far he decided he couldn't deny the possibility. He blushed a bit harder, but soldiered on. "The first time was when we were filming that movie and Mari stepped in for Mylene. I, uh, was actually kind of mad at Chloe for interrupting, to be honest."

As Adrien paused nervously, he glanced over again at Marinette, catching her smiling softly to herself. The sight gave him a little more courage, and he let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He noticed Nino giving him a probing look, and remembered he had yet to reveal the second time he'd considered a kiss with his pigtailed friend. _Please don't let this make Marinette uncomfortable around me,_ he thought. Lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck, he sighed as he said, "The second time, uh, was actually during that dare Alya gave me earlier?"

His confession left all of his friends gaping at him in surprise, which only added to Adrien's embarrassment. Nino was the first to recover, reaching over to high five the blushing blonde with pride. Alya followed his example, ruffling Adrien's hair and saying, "Not bad, Agreste."

After a minute of avoiding Marinette's eyes had passed without any response from the pigtailed girl, he finally braved a glance at her. She was sitting there, hands unconsciously squeezing the tail of her onesie as she started of into space with her mouth slightly agape.

"I think you broke her, bro."

"It was an accident! Marinette, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

To her credit, at the sound of Adrien's apology, Marinette recovered fairly quickly. She glanced down at her hands and released her grip on her tail before looking up to smile at the boy. Her cheeks were still pink, but she didn't seem as distressingly embarrassed as before.

"I'm sorry," Adrien apologized again. "I just wanted to be honest, and you kind of looked like you wanted to know. I hope I didn't make you feel uncomfortable."

"It's fine, Adrien." Marinette surprised them both by speaking confidently, even going so far as to lay a comforting hand over his. "I-I'm glad that you said it. It made me happy."

They smiled sweetly at each other, relieved that they weren't immediately catapulted back into the awkwardness that had plagued them previously. At least, they weren't until chants of "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" started up across from them.

"Alya!" Marinette hissed as she snatched her hand away from Adrien's in embarrassment.

"Nino!" Adrien scolded his friend as well, silently mourning the loss of Marinette's warm hand over his.

Their friends laughed at the two blushing teens, not stopping even under the barrage of pillows Adrien and Marinette decided to unleash upon them. They continued to giggle, hardly visible under the small mound of cushions, and their two embarrassed friends could do nothing except look at each other and sigh.

Finally calming her laughter and righting herself, Alya turned to Adrien. "Let's hear it, Agreste, who's it gonna be?"

"You, I guess. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Adrien didn't waste a second. "Was your whole plan for this sleepover to embarrass me and Marinette as much as humanly possible?"

Alya considered the best way to answer that question. _Technically,_ she thought to herself, _I was planning on trying to get them to become closer, but I_ was _planning to embarrass them a lot along the way, so saying yes isn't really lying, right?_

"Absolutely. You should know me by now, that's pretty much my life goal. Besides finding out Chat Noir and Ladybug's secret identities, of course."

Adrien didn't really know how to respond. Of course, she was right, he had pretty much guessed that embarrassing them was one of her favorite pastimes. He settled on just saying, "Oh, okay. Your turn I guess."

Alya turned to Nino with a wink. "I've got a dare for my sparkly new boyfriend, if he'll take it."

"Absolutely, girlfriend, hit me with it."

"I dare you to sleep in my room tonight. Don't worry, I'll keep you company. Wink, wink."

Nino shot off the floor like his pants were on fire. "WOW, how'd it get to be so late? I'm totally wiped, I think it's time for me to hit the hay, good night kids, see you in the morning!" He sent Adrien a thumbs up before he dashed out of the room.

"Weird, I am also feeling exhausted suddenly," Alya said with a sly grin. She stretched exaggeratedly before standing up to leave the room. "Behave, kiddos. Mom and Dad need some alone time and don't want any interruptions." She exited quickly, before Marinette had a chance to fire off the pillow she had been reaching for, leaving her best friend and her crush alone. _And,_ both _of tonight's plans end in resounding success._ She gave herself a mental pat on the back as she headed towards her bedroom and her waiting boyfriend.

Meanwhile, Adrien and Marinette sat in stunned silence in the living room. Neither was sure what to say at the sudden turn of events, and after remembering the night's confessions, both were feeling a little bit of their former awkwardness resurfacing.

Adrien was the first to break the quiet. "Sooooo, what now?"

"I honestly have no idea." Marinette shook her head with a rueful chuckle.

"Oh, okay. Uh, how about a movie?"

"Sure. Alya has quite the collection of Disney flicks, if you're a fan." Marinette giggled. "She says it's because of her little sisters, but I know she just loves the romance."

"Well, I mean, who doesn't? Disney knows how to do it right," Adrien responded, surprising himself with his honesty. He felt like normally a teenage guy wouldn't admit to liking romantic Disney films to a girl under pain of death, but something about Marinette just made it so easy to be comfortable with sharing that kind of childish secret with her.

"Right? I love them. Do you have a favorite?"

"That's a tough question." Adrien stroked his chin, deep in consideration. "I guess my current favorite is Tangled. I mean, the whole thing is just so ridiculously hilarious, and the songs are fantastic. Not to brag or anything, but I know them all by heart." He gave Marinette a silly grin and returned her question. "What about you?"

Marinette grinned back, eyes sparkling with excitement. "I can't believe it, Tangled is my favorite too! The characters are all so cute, especially Pascal. And I agree about the songs. I sing them all the time, like when I'm doing homework or in the shower."

"Please tell me Alya has a copy."

"I know exactly where she hides it." Marinette crawled across the floor and stuck her hand behind the TV stand, feeling around. "She got so sick of me putting it in whenever I came over that she started stashing it in random places saying she lost it."

Adrien laughed at that. "Well, since she's tired of it, if you ever need a buddy to watch it with you should hit me up. That is, as long as you're okay with me singing along."

Marinette's heart skipped a beat as she wondered, _Does that mean that I'm going to get to hear Adrien Agreste's surely fantastic singing voice tonight?_ She tried to hide at least a bit of her bursting excitement as she retrieved the disk and shuffled back around to the front of the TV to insert it.

When she turned back around, she saw that Adrien had settled in on the couch with his feet resting on the newly replaced coffee table. He picked up a large, fluffy blanket off the floor and covered his legs with it before catching her eye and patting the seat next to him. Marinette's heart soared, and she hurried to grab the remote and a pillow before heading over to sit next to him.

"Oh, wait," Adrien commanded as Marinette was just about to press play. "Let me turn the lights off real quick." He quickly got up to flick the switch, and when he returned he was surprised to see that Marinette was snuggled up under his blanket, cuddling her pillow.

"Hey, hold up," he said teasingly as he resumed his seat beside her. He poked her shoulder accusingly. "I do believe that that's my blanket you're stealing."

"Well, it's your own fault for deciding you wanted to use my favorite blanket."

The boy chuckled at her sass. "And just how was I to know that was your favorite? Give it back."

"Nope."

"Mari, come on. That one's really big and soft."

"I know. Why do you think I like it so much?"

Adrien sighed, deciding to try a compromise. "Okay, it's big enough for both of us to use, so why don't we share it? Then we both win, right?"

 _Oh, I'd definitely count that as a win,_ Marinette thought as she nodded and relinquished her death grip on the blanket. _In more ways than you know, handsome._

Once they had both settled in under their shared prize, Marinette hit play on the remote and the familiar title screen appeared. She snuggled into the blanket a little further, enjoying the extra warmth she could feel radiating from Adrien, and prepared to enjoy her favorite movie more than she ever had before.

"Aaand at laast I seeeeeee the liiiiiiight," Marinette and Adrien sang far too loudly, at this point having given up on staying on key and just going for it. "And it's liiike the FOOOOG has lifted!"

Adrien slung an arm around his companion's shoulder, swaying slightly in his seat and thoroughly enjoying himself as he continued to belt out the lyrics of what was arguably the best song in the movie. He had never expected the night to end up here, but honestly, now that it had, he couldn't imagine a better way to spend his time. Here he was, sitting snuggled up with a cute girl under the softest blanket he'd ever felt, having the time of his life doing an impromptu sing-along with his favorite movie. He wasn't sure he'd ever had more fun, even counting gallivanting around the city as Chat Noir.

 _What would things have been like?_ he wondered as he continued to croon along with the characters on-screen. _If I had met this Marinette before meeting Ladybug, what would things have been like?_ He surprised himself with another thought very different from the first. _Shouldn't I be asking myself what things_ could _be like instead?_

 _You're tired, Adrien,_ his common sense told him. _You're excited from seeing your favorite movie with a friend, don't read anything else into it so quickly._ His common sense couldn't stop some little part of him from adding, _At least for now._

With that, Adrien shoved away his thoughts and focused solely on his duet with the enchanting girl beside him, resolving to figure everything out in the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

Adrien woke up the next morning to snickers and whispers echoing around him. He groaned as he stretched his neck, trying to work out the crick that had set in over night from sleeping with his head propped up on the arm of the couch. Doing his best to ignore the noise and light surrounding him, he started to roll over and go back to sleep.

The boy didn't get very far because he suddenly realized there was a heavy weight lying on top of his torso. He hadn't noticed it before because it was so warm and comfortable, it felt like it belonged there. Slowly, he inched his heavy eyelids open to see what was preventing him from moving.

Adrien blinked a few times in confusion, before his eyes shot open wide as he registered the small girl who was lying on top of him. His arms were loosely hooked around her, keeping her in place with her cheek pressed into his chest. They were both covered by the blanket they had sat under while watching Tangled the previous night, which made sense, but Adrien had no idea how they had ended up in such a compromising position.

 _Okay, think,_ Adrien told himself. _What's the last thing you remember?_ He wracked his brain for the answer. _Okay, I remember singing and having a lot of fun, and putting my arm around Marinette. I'm pretty sure I just left it there since she was warm, and she didn't seem to mind. I don't remember seeing the end of the movie, so I must've fallen asleep somewhere in between. Maybe Mari fell asleep around the same time? In that case, I probably slipped backwards at some point, since I'm lying down now but I wasn't before, and my arm around her dragged her down with me. That doesn't explain how she ended up between my legs, but it's close enough, I guess._

Adrien felt slightly better having solved the mystery, but he still didn't know how to handle the situation he was in currently. As he considered the best way to remove the girl without waking her up, he saw some familiar faces peeking over the couch.

"Uh, morning?" he tried to sound as casual as possible, but it was hard to do when Nino and Alya were clearly highly amused by the position he and Marinette were in.

"Morning, lover boy. Sleep well? Sure looks like it." Alya winked at him as she raised her ever-present phone and snapped some pictures of her friends on the couch.

"I guess? This was unintentional, though."

"Suuuure." More pictures were taken.

"Hmmphnf," Marinette mumbled into Adrien's shirt, reaching down to pull the blanket up to better cover herself.

"Ah, she awakens. Morning, Mari. Sleep well?" Alya asked, sounding entirely too innocent.

"Hmm," Marinette sighed in agreement, burrowing closer to Adrien, who instinctually tightened his arms around her.

Nino chuckled. "How red do you think she's going to turn when she becomes conscious enough to realize what's going on?"

"I think she might explode from having to deal with something this intense so early in the morning. If she passes out be sure to catch her, Adrien. Oh, wait, you already did."

"Hey, like I said, I don't even know how this happened!" _That doesn't mean that I'm not enjoying it, though,_ Adrien admitted to himself.

Marinette finally started to wake up more fully. She yawned and stretched her arms out in front of her before rubbing the sleep from her bleary eyes. Blinking them into focus, she turned them to the two friends hovering over her. "Mornin', you two. Where's Adrien?"

Adrien couldn't stop the rumble of laughter that escaped him at the innocent question. It was cute how Marinette hadn't figured out who was acting as her literal body pillow. He smiled as he told her gently, "Good morning, Mari."

Slowly, Marinette craned her neck until she could see him. "Morning, Adrien." She yawned again, covering her mouth with her hand, then suddenly froze when she realized what she'd said.

She scrambled out of Adrien's arms and into a sitting position between his legs, face blazing red, as Nino had predicted. As she tried to stutter out a question, Adrien took a moment to thank the heavens that he didn't have any morning wood that would only further complicate the situation.

"I-I-I h-how, I mean, I'm, huh? Wh-when did, but w-what?!"

"Okay, breathe, girl, you're not making any sense." Alya patted her friend gently on the head as she struggled to inhale.

"H-h-how did this happen? Oh my gosh, I-I'm so, so sorry Adrien! I didn't mean to use you as a p-pillow!"

He chuckled again laying a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine, don't worry about it. Besides, I'm pretty sure it was my fault we ended up like that. Really, there's no need to apologize."

Marinette hardly seemed reassured as she grabbed a nearby pillow to moan into. Adrien moved his hand down to her back and began rubbing gentle, soothing circles, hoping to calm the distressed girl down. Briefly, he wondered if she was embarrassed because she thought he'd be mad at the invasion of his personal space, so he made sure to mention, "Mari, it's fine. It wasn't uncomfortable or anything, and to be honest it was a pleasantly warm way to sleep."

Slowly, the anguished moaning stopped, and Marinette lifted her blushing face from the pillow. "I'm so, so sorry," she whispered again.

"No worries!" Adrien did his best to make his voice bright and chipper, hoping if she saw he was really unbothered she'd return to being the real Marinette, the one he'd gotten to know the day before. "It's really not a problem, and it's pretty funny if you think about it. Besides, it was the best night of sleep I've gotten in a while, so I should really be thanking you," he finished with a silly grin, poking her gently in the ribs.

Marinette giggled shyly. "If you say so…"

"I do. Now give me back the blanket, it's freezing."

Instead of doing as Adrien asked, Marinette boldly resumed her former position on top of him and pulled the blanket back over both of them. She blinked up at Adrien with innocent eyes, blush still apparent on her cheeks. "We said we'd share it, right?"

As his friends hollered "Go Mari!" and "Get some, girlfriend!" in the background, Adrien struggled for a reply. He came up blank, and with a shrug simply put his arms back around the girl. _Purely to better enjoy her warmth,_ he tried to convince himself, but honestly, even he wasn't buying it. It seemed that after getting to know Marinette better, Adrien's feelings for the pigtailed girl had shifted into something slightly more than just friendly. He was really going to have to sit down with himself and have a chat about that soon.

"Smile, guys!" Alya had walked around to the other side of the couch and was holding up her phone again, clearly aiming to get another picture now that the cuddle bugs were both conscious.

The teens exchanged looks with each other before turning to the camera and grinning. Adrien thought that Marinette looked too nervous, so he shuffled his hands carefully to her sides and began poking at her ribs again. He did this until Marinette let out a giggle, snapping her head around to glare at him.

 _Oh,_ he thought in surprise, _I didn't know Mari doesn't like to be tickled._ An evil grin quickly grew on his face. _Let's see exactly how much she dislikes it._

He started moving his fingers around again, steadily increasing his intensity as she twitched around, trying to restrain her giggles. Nino and Alya were looking on in confusion, not sure exactly what was going on underneath the large blanket that covered their friends, but Alya continued to take pictures regardless.

Eventually, Marinette couldn't contain her laughter anymore and it spilled out of her as she struggled for breath. "S-stop!" She batted at Adrien's merciless hands weakly, but to no avail. "P-please, Adrien!" She tried to climb off the couch, but the boy hooked his legs around her so she was stuck in place, unrelenting in his attack. "Adrien!" she shrieked, gasping for air. "Please, you have to stop! I can't take it!"

Finally, Adrien acquiesced, convulsing with laughter at the great reaction his ministrations had gotten him. _So Marinette is super ticklish,_ he mused. _I really must remember that._

Marinette's chest heaved as she sucked in air. Once she had caught her breath, she turned around and started beating weakly on Adrien's chest, not actually intending to hurt him. "You jerk!"

Adrien snickered at her feeble attempts, not even bothering to block them. "I bet you feel much more awake now."

"Unfortunately, yes." Marinette leaned her forehead against his chest and sighed. "What time even is it?"

"Nine-thirty," Nino piped up from his place behind the couch, grinning down at the scene before him. He sent his best friend a wink and a thumbs up, which Adrien returned a bit shyly.

A muffled "Too early!" came from the front of Adrien's shirt, and Marinette's friends all laughed.

"Not too early for breakfast, I hope." Alya put away her phone and headed towards the kitchen, presumably to scrounge up some food for her guests.

If the cat ears on Marinette's pajamas had been real, they would've perked up with interest to match that in the girl's voice. "Breakfast?"

Alya shouted from the kitchen, "We have bread, jam, and fruit. Come and get it if you want it."

Marinette shot off the couch, tripping over the blanket and only just managing to stop herself from face planting on the floor. She hurried through the doorway, leaving the boys chuckling behind her.

As Adrien stood up to follow her, Nino punched him in the arm. "Dude, you've got it bad."

"You may be right. I really like the Marinette I've gotten to know over the last twenty-four hours. I dunno, man, I've still got to sit down and figure it out."

"Plenty of time for that later, bro." Nino slung an arm over his bud's shoulder. "Come on, I want to get some food before the girls eat it all."

When they got to the kitchen, Adrien grabbed a banana for himself and headed over to where Marinette was sitting on the counter, munching on a piece of toast. He leaned against the edge next to her, peeling his breakfast and taking a bite. Nino headed to the opposite counter, where his girlfriend was busy putting jam on a piece of bread.

Alya finished preparing her breakfast and took a bite, turning to face her friends as she swallowed. "All right, now that everyone has gathered, we can discuss today's schedule of events. As Marinette told her father yesterday, we're going to go swimming, which means, Adrien, we need to borrow your pool."

Adrien choked on his banana. He pounded on his chest as he tried to cough up the bits that had gone down the wrong pipe. Marinette jumped off the counter and hurried to get him some water, which he gratefully gulped down. She thumped on his back as he practically hacked up a lung, not stopping until he was finally able to breathe again.

Alya winced. "Sorry, I guess I should've waited until you were done eating."

"It's fine," Adrien croaked, then cleared his throat. "It just surprised me."

Since her crush was out of danger of death by banana, Marinette took the opportunity to ask Alya what she was talking about. "Wait, I thought we'd just be going to the pool we normally swim at. What do you mean we need to borrow Adrien's pool?"

Nino jumped in. "Dude, Adrien has a totally rad indoor pool! Plus, his dad and Nathalie are out of town right now, so we can totally take advantage of it."

"I don't know, Nino. What if he finds out? Won't he be mad at Adrien for letting us come over and stuff?"

 _Don't do it,_ Adrien's common sense advised him. _You shouldn't risk your father's wrath by saying yes just to impress a girl you're not even sure you like._

Apparently, Adrien's little devil had stolen Angel's frying pan and knocked out Common Sense before shoving him into a broom closet, because the boy hardly hesitated before announcing, "It'll be fine, Marinette. He won't be back until next week, so unless we make one of the staff mad he should never find out." Adrien turned to Alya and Nino, that devious grin Marinette loved so much back on his face. "Let's do it!"

"Awesome! All right, kids, finish your breakfasts and go get dressed so we can clean up and head to Adrien's place."

Adrien began chewing the last bite of his banana, tossing the peel in the trash as he thought to himself, _Plagg will be excited to hear that we're going home where he can-_

The blonde froze mid-step. _Oh, no. Plagg. I forgot about Plagg!_ Adrien groaned quietly, running a hand through his hair. _He is going to kill me._

With a sigh, Adrien turned around to ask Alya if she had any cheese, only to find all three of his friends staring at him. "Uh, sorry. I was just thinking how much I wanted some cheese. Alya, do you have any?"

Alya just shrugged, grabbing some camembert from the fridge, and Adrien thanked the heavens that she had some, figuring Plagg would be slightly less likely to try to maim him with a peace offering of his favorite food. He hurriedly left the kitchen, ignoring the fact that his friends were surely wondering why he was running away with a huge chunk of smelly cheese while muttering frantically to himself.

He made a beeline for his bag, swiping it off the ground and turning to run to the bathroom in one fluid motion. After double checking that he had locked the door, he carefully unzipped the pocket Plagg tended to hang out in the most, not even getting it all the way open before the irate kwami flew up to his face.

"Adrien! Where have you been? I've been dying of starvation for hours."

Adrien winced at the volume his kwami's tiny lungs managed to produce. "I'm sorry, Plagg. I fell asleep last night without realizing. I really didn't intend to forget about you."

The tiny cat huffed, crossing his nubby arms across his chest. "I hope you at least brought me something to eat."

Adrien held out the cheese he had gotten from Alya, and Plagg soared towards it to begin devouring it. As he chewed, cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk's, he managed to mutter out, "I can't believe you thought cuddling with that girl was more important than feeding me."

"It was an accident!" Adrien defended, waving his arms. "I was asleep, I didn't realize what was happening."

"Whatever. I'll forgive you this time, but you had better not forget about me again."

"I won't," the boy promised solemnly, relieved that he was being let off so simply. Then again, with enough cheese, Plagg was fairly easy to bribe into a better mood.

Adrien quickly changed from his pajamas to fresh clothes before shoving everything back into his bag, including a protesting Plagg. "We'll be heading home soon. It's not for that long, so just bear with it," Adrien pleaded. Once his kwami had grumbled a reluctant agreement, Adrien zipped up the final pocket and headed back out to the living room.

He found two of his friends already waiting, cuddled up on the couch. He dropped his bag on the floor before plopping down next to it. "Hey, guys, where's Marinette?"

The girl in question, it turned out, was changing her clothes in Alya's room. What her friends didn't know was that she was also busy giving her kwami the lowdown of the previous evening's events, as well as what had happened that very morning.

"Cuddling, Tikki! Can you believe it?" Marinette exclaimed as she balanced on one leg to slip her leggings on. "I'm pretty sure I turned a shade of red that scientists haven't even discovered yet!"

"That's fantastic, Marinette! It sounds like you were able to get much closer to Adrien. I'm so happy for you!"

Marinette gently grabbed her sweet companion from where she floated to nuzzle her. She planted a kiss on Tikki's tiny, red head. "Thanks! I can't believe things went so well. And now we're going to go swimming together! I hope I can keep it together after seeing him shirtless."

Tikki giggled. "You've got this, Marinette! I believe in you."  
"Thanks, Tikki. You're the best."

The tiny being dove back into Marinette's bag as the girl began to repack her things. She popped her head back out to announce, "I know I am," before diving back inside.

Marinette chuckled softly as she left Alya's room and headed out to meet her friends in the living room. When she got there, she saw she was the last one to arrive. Nino and Alya were cuddling cutely on the couch while Adrien sat on the floor in front of them, busy attempting to fold all of the blankets nicely. Marinette set her stuff down and made her way over to him, snagging an errant comforter on the way before sitting down beside the boy.

"So, are you guys going to help at all?" Marinette teased the couple on the couch.

Alya pretended to consider the idea, before shrugging carelessly. "Nope, we weren't planning on it."

"Some friends," Adrien muttered, tossing a nearby pillow in their general direction.

"Come on, Adrien, we don't need them." Marinette huffed in pseudo-anger as she stacked her neatly folded blanket on top of the ones the boy had already done. She leaned over and tried to wrap her arms around the pile so she could carry them back to Alya's room, but her arms were way too short.

Adrien chuckled. "Here, let me do it. You can take the pillows again."

Marinette agreed, moving away to grab the cushions that were scattered around the room. Once she was sure she had them all, she followed Adrien to Alya's room, where she opened the closet and began replacing them.

"Is it bad that I'm already sick of them being a couple?"

Marinette laughed at the sudden question. "No, I get it. It's cute, but they're even more lovey-dovey now, and it was already hard to deal with before." She grinned as she took the first blanket from Adrien and reached up to put it on the shelf. "I am happy for them, though, they're really good together."

Adrien agreed as he leaned forward, using his free hand to help Marinette push the blanket onto the shelf, which she almost couldn't reach. When he looked down, she had turned around to face him, and both teens blushed as they were suddenly almost nose to nose.

 _If he just leaned in a little…_ Marinette's breath caught in her throat at the thought.

 _Just lean in a little, her lips look really soft,_ Devil suggested to Adrien. The boy looked to his angel for help, but the winged fellow just shrugged at him.

 _I mean, he's not wrong, they do look soft. Like tiny, pink pillows._

Adrien didn't know what to do. He definitely thought he wanted to kiss Marinette, but there was no way of knowing if she'd be okay with that. Besides, if he did kiss her, he wanted to do it right, not randomly in his friend's closet. He was frozen, desires conflicting inside of him.

 _Not now,_ Willpower declared, swooping in with a stolen frying pan to save the day. _Another time,_ he whispered to Adrien as he dragged Angel and Devil away by their ankles.

Adrien silently thanked him before straightening up and clearing his throat. "Sorry, I didn't mean to invade your space, Marinette." He smiled gently and handed her another blanket.

The girl took it with a blush. "O-oh, no problem. Thanks for the help, the shelf was higher than I remembered."

They continued to work together, now passing the blankets in silence. That is, until Adrien started snickering. Marinette gave him a questioning look, and he smiled impishly at her.

"What did the blanket say when it fell off the bed?"

Marinette groaned. "Is this another lame joke?"

"Hey, my jokes are great! Just answer the question."

"I don't know, what did it say?"

Adrien looked positively delighted with himself as he answered, "Oh, sheet!"

Marinette sputtered with laughter. She didn't think the joke was all that funny, honestly, but he was just so enthusiastic about it and looked so absolutely amused with himself that she couldn't help but laugh. "You're adorable."

The words had slipped out before she could stop them, and she blanched as they echoed in her ears. _Oh, no. Damage control, gotta get out of this somehow!_ she thought frantically. _What will Adrien think since I said something like that?_

To her surprise, when she turned to assess the boy's reaction, she was met with pinked cheeks. Adrien was definitely blushing at the compliment as he rubbed at the back of his neck, something Marinette now realized was a nervous habit. She thought, in wonder, _I did that._ She grinned, relishing the sight of her crush being the one embarrassed by her for once. _Now, how can I make it happen again?_

"I'm sorry," Marinette said innocently, "I didn't mean to embarrass you."

Adrien brushed it off with a laugh. "It's fine, you didn't embarrass me."

 _Yeah? Tell that to those cute rosy cheeks of yours,_ Marinette smirked to herself. She was surprised at how confident she was feeling around her crush now. Never before had she imagined that someday she'd be actively looking for ways to embarrass Adrien or spending so much time with him without stuttering. She figured, at this rate, she might actually have a shot with him.

Marinette tucked away the last blanket and turned around, accidentally bumping into Adrien's firm chest. Still riding her high from the moment before, she decided to do an experiment. She flattened her hands gently over Adrien's shirt, pressing her body a little closer to his, before widening her eyes in surprise as she looked up at him.

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry, Adrien. How clumsy of me." Marinette studied the blonde's face carefully, not moving from her position.

Adrien froze for a second as his brain tried to sort out what was happening. Libido was in the corner shouting, _Yes! Yes! Good!,_ which was distracting the boy from pretty much everything else. He was so muddled that he missed the next thing that Marinette said.

Adrien was pretty sure he was a lovely shade of crimson at the moment, but he tried to at least keep his voice steady. "Sorry, what was that?"

Marinette grinned slyly, enjoying the effect her hastily thrown together plan was having on the boy. "I was just saying that you'll have to step back so that we can get out." She winked at the boy, murmuring, "Unless you'd rather stay like this?"

"Right!" Adrien exclaimed way too loudly. He laughed awkwardly as his hand again attached itself to the back of his neck. "Sorry! I'll step back now."

Marinette waited another moment. "Adrien?"

"Oh, right! I have to actually move." More nervous laughter emanated from the boy as he carefully took a step to the side, causing Marinette's hands to fall from his chest.

As she stepped out of the closet, Marinette went for the kill, sending Adrien the sweetest smile she could muster as she fluttered her lashes. "Thanks, cutie." As much as she wanted to see Adrien's reaction, she decided that sashaying out of the room would be more impactful, so, hips swinging, she left the boy behind and headed for the living room.

She startled the lovebirds out of a kiss as she plopped down on the couch and leaned her head back, cackling evilly. As they stared at her, she started reliving in her thoughts everything that had just happened.

 _Amazing work,_ Marinette praised herself as she mentally high-fived Confidence and Devil. _Take five, guys. Adrien's going to need at least that long to calm down, I'll bet._

As she finally stopped laughing with a sigh, Alya decided to take the chance to question her. "Okay, what the hell was that about?"

Marinette shrugged. "I did an experiment to see how much I could embarrass Adrien." She casually buffed her nails on her sweater, as though what she'd just admitted was no big deal.

Alya jumped on her. "Girl, you did not!" As Marinette nodded impishly, her best friend squeezed her in a hug, proclaiming, "I never knew you were so bad! So what happened?"

As Nino peeked around his girlfriend, Marinette gave them the short version. "Basically, I accidentally called him adorable and noticed it made him blush. Then, when I turned around and unintentionally bumped into him, I kind of pressed up against him until he finally moved away, and when he did I said, 'Thanks, cutie' and just left him there. He was blushing so hard; I've never felt more powerful!"

Nino whooped, reaching across Alya to high five the pigtailed girl. "That is amazing! I wish I could've seen his face."

Alya shushed them suddenly. "Guys, I think he's coming. Act natural."

When Adrien entered the room, he found Alya and Nino making out in one corner of the couch as Marinette squealed and covered her eyes at the other end. _Business as usual,_ he sighed in relief. _Marinette must not have told them about whatever that was just now. Speaking of,_ he continued to himself, _What on earth_ was _that about anyways?_

The boy didn't get to dwell on his question for long. Alya suddenly broke off her kiss with Nino and looked up at him. "The gang's all here!" She untangled herself from her boyfriend and climbed off the couch, clapping her hands. "Alright, guys, it's time to head out."

Everyone crowded into the front hall to put on their coats and shoes. After Alya ascertained that Marinette and Adrien had their bags, she shuffled her guests out the door and locked it. The group carefully picked their way down the icy sidewalk and started walking in the direction of Adrien's house.

Nino and Alya kept up a steady stream of chatter during the trip, their breath coloring the air above their heads a milky white. Adrien and Marinette trailed slightly behind their friends, listening to the conversation without giving much input.

Adrien was mostly thinking about what Marinette had done in Alya's room, trying to puzzle out her motives. He wondered optimistically if she'd been flirting with him because she liked him, but he didn't have much experience with flirting—outside of Chloe's uncomfortable attempts—so he couldn't judge if that had been the case. He did find, however, that the thought that she might like him sent a tingle down his spine. _Another thing I should assess further later._

As he snuck a peek over at the girl next to him, he was shocked to see her lips were a light purple. "Marinette, are you okay?"

"Yeah," the girl shivered. "I forgot my scarf at Alya's, so I'm just a bit chilly." Understatement of the year. Internally, she cursed her Ladybug side for making her weaker to the cold than the average person. She had on a thick sweater and her coat, but the occasional breeze would slip beneath her collar and make it feel as though she wasn't wearing anything.

Adrien gently placed a hand on Marinette's shoulder so she'd stop walking. He quickly slipped his scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around hers, making sure to tie it tight with no gaps for air to seep in. As he finished, he took a moment to admire what an angelic picture she made. Her cheeks and nose were lightly flushed from the cold, and the baby blue scarf really made her bluebell eyes pop as they blinked up at him.

Entranced, he asked softly, "Is that better?"

Marinette nodded slowly, a grateful smile forming on her face. "Thanks, I'm much warmer now. Will you be okay though?"

"I'll be fine," the boy reassured her. "I'm glad I could help."

A lightbulb went off in Marinette's head, and she tried her best to contain her devious smile. "Actually, if you wouldn't mind, there's something else you could help me with."

"Oh? Of course, what can I do for you?"

Marinette pulled a small, bare hand from her coat pocket. "I managed to lose a mitten somehow, and now this hand is cold. I think it would be a lot warmer if you held it for me."

As Adrien stammered and turned red, Marinette congratulated herself on how smoothly she'd pulled that off. It had been a trick getting her mitten off inside of her pocket, but, with some clever thinking and a seamstress' dexterity, she'd managed to free her hand in a timely manner. After a moment, when Adrien still hadn't responded, she sighed and started to put her hand back in her pocket and resume walking, figuring maybe she'd been moving too fast.

In reality, that wasn't the problem. Adrien wanted to hold Marinette's hand, even if he couldn't convince himself it was purely to help out a friend. He was just so flustered by the suggestion that he almost couldn't force himself into coherent thought in time to grab the girl's hand, stopping her before she could tuck it away.

Now that he held it, Adrien wasn't sure what to do with the tiny thing. Glancing at the couple ahead of them, he decided to take a page out of Nino's book. As he and Marinette began to walk forward again, he linked his fingers through the girl's and tucked their connected hands into his coat pocket.

"I-Is this okay?" he asked her nervously.

 _Better than okay, this is fantastic!_ Marinette squealed to herself. _I can't believe he actually went for it!_

To Adrien, she nodded, "Absolutely perfect, thank you."

When the group finally arrived at the Agreste mansion, Alya and Nino were surprised to see Marinette wearing Adrien's scarf, becoming even more amazed once they noticed the hand-holding that was happening. They had been so involved with each other that they hadn't even noticed the exchange occurring behind them, but now that they saw what was going on, they were full of questions.

As Adrien moved to the front of the pack to navigate the security procedures and enter the house, Marinette was dragged alongside him by their still conjoined hands. Nino and Alya trailed behind her, whispering excitedly about this latest development and extracting promises that she would tell them all about it later.

Finally, the door was opened and the teens breathlessly made their way into the warm interior of Adrien's house. Adrien quickly shut the door behind them, having to let go of Marinette's hand to do so, and Marinette breathed a sigh of relief at finally being out of the cold as she stepped deeper into the heated room. She took her remaining mitten off and began blowing on her freezing fingers as she marveled at the ostentatious entryway.

As Nino and Alya began wandering around the space, Adrien stayed where he was, simply watching Marinette. He thought back over the times she had seemingly made an effort to embarrass him that morning and decided that it was about time he got some revenge.

Stepping lightly, so as not to alert the pigtailed girl to his plan, Adrien crossed the few feet that separated them and pulled up right behind Marinette. As she gasped in surprise, he gently stretched his arms around her, effectively encasing her in a hug from behind as he covered her tiny hands with his own larger ones. He rubbed her fingers slightly, trying to massage away the cold, and though he couldn't see her face, he saw the tips of Marinette's ears turn red at his actions.

 _Nailed it,_ he crowed to himself. _How's it feel to get a taste of your own medicine, little miss?_

Had Marinette known what he was thinking, she probably would have answered his question with something like "Pretty fantastic." However, since she didn't know what she was thinking as Adrien extracted his revenge, she was somewhat of a panicking puddle inside.

 _What is he doing?_ she pondered. _Is he just worried about me because I was so cold earlier, or does this mean something? Am I reading too much into it? Oh, help._

Once Marinette's hands were no longer like blocks of ice, Adrien decided his revenge was complete. He asked the girl gently, "Feeling warmer now?"

Adrien's voice emanating from so close to her ear sent a shiver down Marinette's spine. Wordlessly, she nodded, afraid to speak for the stutter she was sure would make its reappearance. She sighed in disappointment as the boy withdrew his warm arms from around her, almost wishing she had lied so that he would've stayed close longer.

 _Bad Marinette,_ she chided herself. _You can't take advantage of his kindness. He was just concerned about you, don't overstep and make things weird._ She shook away her thoughts of romance before returning her attention to analyzing her surroundings.

Adrien interrupted his friends' admiration of his home. "Hey, guys," he spoke, drawing his friends' attention back to him. "Let's head up to my room so that I can get a suit to lend Nino, and then we can hit the pool."

Everyone agreed amiably, following the blonde up the stairs and through a door into a cavernous room that resembled an amusement park more than a bedroom. Alya, having never seen the space before, was thoroughly awestruck, and Marinette did her best impression of amazement as well. After all, she'd only ever seen the room as Ladybug, so being completely nonplussed by the amazing area would have been a bit suspicious.

As Adrien headed straight for the closet to find his friend some swim trunks, Nino, of course, made himself right at home. He walked straight in and plopped down on the white couch, lacing his fingers together behind his head and effectively becoming the perfect picture of relaxation. Alya laughed at this, and went to sit next to him as Marinette chose instead to slowly wander the room.

When she had been there as Ladybug, Marinette hadn't exactly had time to take in the small details of Adrien's room, so she figured she'd take advantage of the time she had and see if she could learn anything new about him. She wandered over to the computer area, marveling at the fencing trophies surrounding the monitor. She had just turned to examine the banner hanging over Adrien's bed when her hip accidentally bumped the desk, jarring the mouse enough to awaken the monitors from their state of sleep.

As she rubbed her bruised hip, Marinette had to bite back a giggle when she saw what was prominently displayed across all four of Adrien's computer screens. Everywhere she looked, pictures, articles, and videos of her super hero alter-ego were visible.

"Gah!" Adrien choked as he re-entered the main room, two pairs of swim trunks in hand. As Alya and Nino turned towards the source of the noise, he rushed forward and frantically attempted to turn the blazing screens off.

"Polka dot kiiiiiink," Alya sing-songed from across the room. Adrien shot her a glare over his shoulder as he finally managed to set the screens to black. The girl wasn't bothered at all by Adrien's scathing look, simply telling him, "Welcome to the club, Agreste."

Adrien sighed defeatedly and rubbed his forehead, deciding it was best just to move on. He tossed one of the suits towards the couch, Nino somehow sensing this and reaching up with perfect timing to catch it. With another heavy sigh, Adrien called to his friends. "Come on, guys, we can all change at the pool."

Once everyone had gathered around him, Adrien led his friends through a maze of hallways, finally ending up at the pool as promised. It was nothing terribly special, beyond the fact that it was a personal indoor pool, he supposed. A small lap pool for his morning exercises was accompanied by a hot tub that was more than big enough to fit Adrien and his friends. He led the other teens across the concrete towards a set of twin doors.

"You girls can change in there." Adrien pointed at the door on the right. "You can just leave your stuff in there if you'd like. If you need anything, let me know."

The girls agreed, entering their changing room, and the boys headed through the other door into their own changing area. Each quickly selected one of the five lockers and began disrobing, hanging their clothes up on the provided hangers as they did.

"Dude, your place is so fancy."

Adrien blushed at the comment. He didn't really like being noticed for his family's wealth, but he had to admit it came in handy at times like this. "Thanks, I guess."

The blonde paused as he slid his swim suit on, considering. "By the way, Nino, how did you even know I had an indoor pool?"

Rather than answering, Nino just tapped his nose with a wink. Adrien wasn't sure what that meant exactly, but he decided it wasn't important and let it go.

The boys headed out of the changing room together, noting the empty pool and figuring that the girls must still be changing. They exchanged a glance, then started racing across the concrete towards the pool, both leaping high in the air and crashing down into the water as Nino shouted, "Cannon ball!"

A moment later, the boys surfaced, sputtering with laughter that abruptly stopped when two pairs of feminine feet padded up to the edge of the concrete in front of them. Adrien slowly followed a slim set of porcelain legs up to a teeny, powder pink skirt that was accented with a slightly darker trim and a bow at the left hip. His eyes continued their journey up a toned stomach, past a tiny waist, to a matching halter bikini top which had darker pink ruffles on the tops of the cups, as well as another bow in the center where they met. As his eyes lingered there for just slightly longer than would be considered polite, Adrien felt something hot start to grow in his belly. He finally broke his gaze away and scanned up the rest of Marinette, feeling the heat in his stomach dip lower as he was graced with the sight of two twin buns perched atop the girl's head instead of her typical pigtails.

He hadn't realized he'd stopped treading water until he was choking and gasping for air as he tried to expectorate the liquid that he'd swallowed. Nino quickly grabbed onto him, pulling him over until he was close enough to cling to the side of the deck. As his chest heaved with his coughs, Marinette crouched down beside him to thump his back gently.

"Adrien, are you okay?" Her concern was very audible in her voice, and Adrien felt bad for worrying her by choking twice in one day.

He croaked, "Fine," as the coughing momentarily subsided, and Marinette stopped her pounding to rub soothing circles on his back. Alya and Nino were looking on with worried faces, and overall Adrien felt very embarrassed for causing such a ruckus over something so silly.

The blonde managed to cough up the last of the water, clearing his throat several times and taking a few deep breaths. He gave his friends what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I'm okay, guys. Sorry about that."

As Nino and Marinette sighed in relief, Alya sent Adrien a wink that told him the reason for his choking was embarrassingly obvious. He cleared his throat again, turning to look at Marinette instead and pretending he hadn't noticed the gesture.

Marinette slowly dipped a toe into the pool, to test the waters before actually making the leap in. She squealed and pulled her foot back, surprised at how cold the pool was. Her friends all stared at her in amusement.

"It's not that bad, Mari, just hop in." Adrien splashed a little water up towards the girl's feet, causing her to shriek and jump back from the edge of the pool.

"No way! It's too cold for me."

Alya gave her best friend a sympathetic grin. "Come on girl, we can sit at the edge and put our legs in, that will help you get used to it."

Marinette pouted, considering her options. After a moment of thought, she sighed and moved to sit next to her best friend, finally slipping her feet into the pool with a grimace. She forced herself to leave them in—although she wanted desperately to pull them out—so that she could get used to the water and swim with Adrien.

After several minutes, Marinette was finally adjusting to the temperature. Granted, every time one of the boys made waves and caused the water to hit previously untouched parts of her leg she squealed, but she was at least making progress. She turned to Alya to comment on how she might be ready to get in soon, but, as she looked to where her friend had been sitting, she was greeted with empty space. Confused, she turned to ask one of the boys if they had seen Alya. Before she could get the words out, she heard a loud yell from behind her, followed by a streak of purple and black—the color of Alya's bikini, she realized too late—passing by her on the right.

An instant later, Marinette was soaked by the large wave her traitorous best friend's cannon ball had created. How Alya always managed such impressive damage while being of average size Marinette had never understood, but at the moment she was very much resenting the talent. The young seamstress squealed at the cold, wiping water out of her eyes so that she could properly glare at her laughing friends.

"Alya! How could you?"

The girl laughed. "Come on, Mari, you have to get in at some point. Just jump in, you'll get used to it really fast, I swear."

As much as Adrien was enjoying the view of Marinette's cute bikini, he thought they'd all have more fun in the pool together, so he chimed in too. "Yeah, come on, Marinette! It won't be that bad, really."

Marinette couldn't resist the angelic smile Adrien was giving her, so with a groan she braced herself. Taking a deep breath, she pinched her nose and slipped off the side of the pool and into the water. Once completely enveloped in the water, she ended up losing all of her air to another squeal at the chill that enveloped her, quickly resurfacing to find her friends all cheering for her. She mimed a bow in the water, thankful to find that they had been right and she was already adjusting to the temperature.

"Awesome, now we have enough people for games!" Nino exclaimed with a smile that held a hint of evil. Marinette narrowed her eyes at him, suspicious of an ulterior motive, but he pretended not to notice.

"What games did you have in mind, Nino?"

"Why, I'm so glad you asked, Alya!"

 _Yup,_ Marinette thought to herself. _They are definitely up to something, that sounded way too scripted._

Nino motioned for his friends to follow, and everyone made their way to the shallow end of the pool. Once they had gathered, he turned to address the group.

"Okay, kids. Our first game of the day will be the ever-popular chicken fight." Nino high-fived Alya with a grin. "Of course, Alya and I will be one team, which means you two are together. You know how to play right?"

Marinette nodded with a blush, sneaking a peek over at Adrien. Her teammate looked somewhat confused, so she decided to explain the game to him. "Basically, Adrien, the point of the game is to knock the other team down. The girls sit on the boys' shoulders and fight to push each other off, and whoever lasts longer wins."

The boy looked delighted at this information, which made Marinette's stomach flutter. "Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun!"

Marinette nodded. "It is. And we have to win, okay?"

"Roger that! Let's take them down."

The teams quickly arranged themselves into proper playing positions, Alya and Marinette clambering onto the boys' shoulders. Amazingly, it only took Marinette three tries to manage to get up without falling. She was trying her best to stay calm as she balanced herself by grasping Adrien's head gently, but she was barely holding it together.

 _This is the best day of my life! I can't believe my bare legs are touching Adrien Agreste's bare shoulders!_ she thought ecstatically.

Devil suddenly chimed in with, _I'd been hoping my legs would end up on his shoulders while in another position instead, but this is pretty good. Besides, we have plenty of time for that later. Wink, wink._

Clearly, Marinette's little devil was hanging around Alya's too much, as she was starting to pick up on her personal colloquialisms.

Meanwhile, beneath Marinette, Adrien's mind was racing in several directions at once. Libido was murmuring to Devil some salacious things that Adrien would never repeat aloud, and Angel chased them both around with his ever-present frying pan. Common Sense told Adrien he needed to control himself better, to which the boy mentally responded, _I'm doing my best, but a cute girl is sitting on my shoulders wearing hardly more than underwear, which is a first, so this is a bit of a trying time for me._

He then pulled himself out of his thoughts for a second in shock. _I've given my imaginary personalities names and now I'm having full-on conversations with them. This can't be normal._

Startled out of his thoughts by a duo of loud yells, he looked up to see Nino and Alya surging towards him, apparently having decided to begin the game. He grinned, shouted up to Marinette to hang on, and began wading forward towards their opponents. The girls clashed, and Adrien and Nino struggled to stay upright with the shifting weights atop them.

"Get her, Mari!" Adrien called up to his partner, as he gripped her thighs more tightly—purely to keep her stable, of course. He was taking absolutely no pleasure in the action. _Liar_.

"I'm working on it!" The girl's voice was strained with effort as she attempted to dismount her friend. Though she was the smaller of the two, Marinette was fueled by a bright-burning competitive flame and fought with more strength than would be expected of her. She was determined to win because, for goodness sake, she was _Ladybug,_ and Ladybug should never be beaten in such a silly competition. Chat Noir would never let her hear the end of it if he somehow found out.

With those thoughts lingering in her mind, Marinette gave one last mighty push and managed to unseat Alya. As the young reporter splashed down into the water, Marinette lifted her hands in victory and cheered. Adrien shared her enthusiasm, reaching up to give her a high five as they congratulated each other on a job well done.

Unfortunately, this left them open to an out-of-bounds sneak attack from Nino. One well-placed shove and the winning duo collapsed into the water. Sputtering, they rose to the surface, calling Nino all manner of names and accusing him of cheating. He simply grinned as his girlfriend gave him a kiss on the cheek for the brilliant execution of some petty revenge.

"You are such bad sports." Marinette scowled at the smirking couple and crossed her arms.

Adrien came up behind her, laying a hand on her shoulder and doing his best to ignore the small shiver the action sent up his spine. "Yeah, rude. Rematch."

Nino quickly begged out of that, knowing that Alya would be irritated if they lost again. "Actually, I was thinking we could go in the hot tub for a bit. Is everyone cool with that?"

Everyone nodded their assent and languidly began making their way to the edge of the pool. Marinette's tummy did flips as she entertained the idea of being in such close quarters with a nearly naked Adrien. As she waded slowly through the water, she let her mind float off into thoughts of what she and Adrien might do in a hot tub someday when Nino and Alya weren't around, grinning softly to herself the whole way.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hello, all! I wanted to say thank you so so much for all of your lovely reviews, as well as for favoriting/following my story! Your support makes me so happy. Also, to let you know, tomorrow I will be uploading the last chapter that I have up on tumblr and AO3 right now, so after that I will update here at the same rate as everywhere else, which has been about once a week unless work and school get really hectic. I hope you guys will keep reading and keep letting me know what you think! Enjoy :)_

As Adrien pulled himself up over the edge of the pool to get out, Marinette took a moment to sneakily admire his assets. She enjoyed watching the muscles in his back flex as he moved, and practically drooled when he twisted and revealed his visible—but not scarily defined—abs. She was still staring at his physique when he turned towards her with that angelic smile, holding out a hand to help her get out of the pool. Blushing, she accepted the assistance, using her other hand to push against the deck and bring herself over the side.

As he helped her to stand, Marinette opened her mouth to thank her crush. Before she could get the words out, she somehow managed to catch one foot on the other, effectively tripping herself. She squealed as she catapulted forward, her hand slipping from Adrien's in an attempt to catch herself, or at least brace for the inevitable impact.

She slammed face-first into something hard and warm, Adrien's voice rumbling out of it to say, "I've got you."

 _I am touching Adrien Agreste's bare chest._ Marinette almost couldn't comprehend the idea. _My face is touching his_ bare chest _holy crap. Be cool, Mari._

 _Lick it,_ Libido suggested.

 _Yeah, good idea._ Marinette's tongue was poking out from between her lips by the time she realized, _Wait, BAD IDEA! Libido, are you trying to make him hate me?_

 _Hey, I just call it like I see it._

From above came the sound of a throat clearing. Cheek brushing against Adrien's soft skin, Marinette slowly craned her neck to look up at the boy whose chest she was currently considering molesting. He wore a slight blush and a bemused grin, eyes scanning her face and lingering on her still visible tongue.

Marinette pulled the offending tip back inside her mouth as she slowly pushed away from the boy. _Okay, just act natural. He has no idea what you were thinking, just play it cool._

"I, uh, boy am I thirsty!" Marinette said as casually as possible in a desperate attempt to change the subject and distract everyone from her blush.

Lucky for her, Adrien cared very much about being a good host for his friends, so her obvious distraction worked. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't think to offer you guys anything. This is really my first time having people over, so I forgot. Sorry, you must be really thirsty, Marinette."

 _You have no idea,_ the girl thought to herself. Aloud, she reassured Adrien. "It's okay, don't worry about it."

"I'll go ask someone to bring us some snacks. Be right back." Adrien walked over to the changing rooms and began speaking into an intercom on the wall.

While he was distracted, Alya decided it was time for a quick pep talk. She leaned over and smacked Marinette on the butt. "Thirstier than a man lost in a desert. Go get 'im, tiger."

Marinette squealed in surprise, jumping away and rubbing her assaulted behind. "Alya!"

The bespectacled girl didn't get a chance to respond because Adrien returned just then. "I asked them to bring us some fruit and juice since we don't really keep sweets around. I hope that's okay." After everyone voiced their assent, Adrien smiled. "Great. Why don't we head to the hot tub, like Nino suggested?"

The group strolled casually across the deck, all stopping to gather around the in ground hot tub. Though smaller than the lap pool, it looked to be able to fit the four teens as well as a few more of their classmates.

Alya was the first to slip in, testing the temperature with her foot before quickly descending the stairs and sliding down into the water with a purr. She took a seat on the bench across from the stairs and Nino was quick to follow suit, taking a spot right next to his girlfriend.

"Here, let me turn the jets on." Adrien headed to a nearby panel on the wall and pressed a button, causing the water to begin to bubble and churn around the two bodies already in the pool.

The boy returned to the stairs, where Marinette was still standing. He gestured towards the water. "After you."

Hesitantly, Marinette tip toed onto the first step. As the heat of the water seeped through her to her very core, she sighed, hurriedly stumbling down the remaining steps and collapsing into the water with a low moan. She sunk down on the bench adjacent to Alya until only the top half of her face was visible, enjoying the soothing jets that were massaging her back.

"Comfortable, huh?" Adrien asked as he sank down beside her, his knee gently brushing hers under the water.

Marinette jolted slightly at the contact, wondering why Adrien had chosen to sit so close to her when the tub clearly had enough room for everyone to spread out. _Then again,_ she supposed, _I guess it's the only way that we'll all be close enough to talk. That's probably all it is._ She batted Irrational Hope out of her mind, zoning back into the continuing conversation.

"Extremely comfortable." Alya rested her head on Nino's shoulder with a sigh. "I'm never moving again."

"Not even for some snacks?" Adrien grinned as he hopped back out of the tub to go meet the man who had just entered the pool area with a tray of food. He accepted the tray, thanking the man before carrying it carefully to his friends. Standing on the deck, he stooped to pass out the drinks, which his friends gratefully accepted. He handed out small bowls of fruit before setting the tray on a nearby table and making his way back into his seat.

It was quiet for a moment as everyone began munching on their snacks. Nino, having practically inhaled his portion, was the first to break the silence. "Okay, kids, it's time for everyone's favorite game!"

Marinette replied dryly, "Nino, we can't play Ultimate Mecha Strike in the water, it's too dangerous. We could get electrocuted."

Nino reached across Alya to playfully smack Marinette on an exposed shoulder. "Of course, that wasn't what I meant. I was suggesting we play FMK."

Adrien broke into the conversation. "Uh, what's FMK?"

"Innocent child," Alya murmured with a shake of her head.

"It's okay, bro, we'll teach you how to be a real teen." Adrien stayed silent, finding he couldn't argue with Nino's assessment that he wasn't a real teenager, which encouraged the bespectacled boy to continue his lesson. "So FMK stands for Fuck, Marry, Kill. Basically, someone lists three people and you have to tell who you would fuck, who you'd marry, and who you'd kill."

"Exactly." Alya gestured to the girl next to her with a nod. "Marinette will go first, to demonstrate."

Shaken out of her warm bubble-induced stupor by the sound of her name, Marinette cocked a brow. "I will?"

"Yup." Alya wore a face that told Marinette she had no choice. "Now, let's see. What would you do with Mayor Bourgeois, Mylene's father, and Ladybug?"

"Fuck Ladybug, marry Mr. Haprèle, and kill the Mayor."

"Why, Marinette, I had no idea you swung that way." Nino sent a suggestive wink to the group.

Adrien didn't notice his best friend's actions because there was a bigger distraction lurking just beneath the surface for him. He had to acknowledge that he was slightly turned on by Marinette's admission, a fact that was not lessened by Libido's gentle whisperings about what a nice picture tangled pink and red clad legs would make. He took a swig of his cold juice, hoping it would distract him from his heated thoughts.

Meanwhile, Marinette was having an internal crisis of her own. _I mean, it's not like I can come out and say, "Well, I do something very similar on a fairly regular basis,"_ she reasoned. In response to Nino's question, she began, "Okay, but let's be honest-"

"Don't you mean ' _lesbi_ -honest'?" Alya replied with a waggle of her brows.

Marinette struggled to continue her sentence as though she hadn't heard the comment or Nino's subsequent laughter. "Ladybug is the hottest option, no contest. Mr. Haprèle is a nice guy; I know he'd take good care of me so I'd marry him. The mayor should be self explanatory."

"Very good. Nothing to be ashamed of, everyone here wants to bed Ladybug anyways." Alya winked at Marinette who attempted to keep a straight face as the double implication of Adrien wanting after her alter-ego and Alya wanting her the same way hit her in the gut. She decided to put it out of her mind for the moment and continue the game.

"Alright, Nino," Marinette challenged. "How about Lady Wifi, Nathaniel, and Max?"

The boy hardly paused. "Fuck Lady Wifi, marry Nath, kill Max."

"Really?" Adrien was slightly surprised at his choices. "Of the three options, you'd go to bed with the only evil one?"

"Dude, Lady Wifi was smokin'." Nino squeezed Alya's shoulder with a grin. "Besides, Nath is really nice, he'd make a good husband. I like Max, but he's not my type so he has to go."

As the other teens murmured in agreement, Nino squeezed his girlfriend's shoulder again. "Your turn, babe."

"Hit me."

"Let's go with a toughie. Ladybug, Chat Noir, and myself."

Alya didn't hesitate at all. "Fuck them all, marry Nino." She pressed a kiss to his cheek as he burst out in laughter.

"Isn't that against the rules?" Marinette objected.

The boy considered the question for a moment, before announcing, "Judge Nino will allow it," and receiving another kiss from his girlfriend.

After breaking away from the kiss, Alya turned to the blonde on the adjacent bench. "Okay, time to go Adrien. What would you do with me, Nino, and Mari?"

As Marinette slowly sank into the water, the boy appeared to consider the question very seriously. "Well, obviously, I'd marry Nino." He paused to accept a brofist from his friend before announcing the rest of his choices, looking just the slightest bit nervous. "I, uh, I'd f- have sex with Marinette and kill Alya."

"I want a divorce," Nino declared. "You killed my side ho!"

"It's okay, babe, I'm fine with it." Alya placed a soothing hand on her boyfriend's arm, glancing sideways to shoot a wink at Marinette.

 _Boy, am I glad that my face is already red from the hot tub,_ Marinette reflected, though she was unable to hide a small grin at Adrien's decision.

The teens played a few more rounds of the game before Adrien begged mercy. "I'm a little overheated, I think I'm going to get out. Do you guys want to keep swimming, or should we change and go to my room?"

As a collective, the rest of the group decided that they were done with the pool for the day and began to climb out of the hot tub. Adrien produced towels from a nearby cabinet, and the teens wrapped themselves in the luxurious sheets. Marinette giggled at how red she and Adrien were compared to their darker skinned friends as she waddled over to the changing room door. Holding it open for Alya, she followed her friend inside and headed for the locker she had stowed her stuff in.

It was quiet for a moment as the girls began disrobing, but, with an inquisitive reporter in the room, quiet never lasts.

"So," Alya began, drawing out the word much longer than necessary. "What the hell happened to the old Marinette?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well—and this isn't a bad thing—you've been so much more outgoing around Adrien today. I mean, you've totally been flirting with him all day, and I'm so proud of you, but what changed? It's like you smacked the old Marinette with a shovel and wore a spicy little black number to her funeral, not even bothering to fake tears."

Marinette shrugged as she took out her hair ties and ran her fingers through the soft waves that fell down to kiss her neck. She stalled for time, grabbing a towel to dry her hair a bit more as she tried to figure out how to explain it.

"I guess it's because being around him so much is different than I'd thought it would be." The look on Alya's face told her she needed to elaborate, so she continued to think aloud. "He's really nice, which I already knew, but he doesn't seem to be bothered that I act a little weird sometimes, and he's actually kind of dorky, which makes him less intimidating."

"Honey, I could've told you that," Alya interjected. "In fact, I'm pretty sure I have."

Marinette, who was standing on one leg to put her leggings back on, almost lost her balance as she laughed. "Probably, but it helps more to see it for myself I think. I don't know, I guess the biggest thing is that I feel like he's almost…flirting back at me?" She rushed, "But I don't know, maybe I'm imagining it because I like him so much."

Alya was silent for a moment, considering what her friend had said. As she tugged the brush from Marinette's bag and began taming her mane with it, she proposed her views. "Now, obviously I can't read minds, so don't take my opinion to be absolute, but I do think he's been more friendly with you than normal. I mean, comparatively, Adrien probably knows me better because I wasn't always a spaz around him," she joked, poking Marinette in the side with the hairbrush. "But even so, he's been acting much more familiar with you than me since the party-favor incident. So in my completely inexpert opinion, I would say that he _is_ flirting back at you, he just might not realize it yet."

Marinette tried to control the flutter in her stomach at Alya's words. She knew her friend was right and that only Adrien could really know what he was feeling, but she couldn't squash her hope now that she knew her best friend—who, despite what she said, was actually pretty good at reading boys—shared her opinion.

Alya's voice startled her out of her thoughts. "Now that we've covered that, we need to do something about your hair. You've got those weird bumps and waves from the buns, and I'm sure you want to look your best in front of your beau." She dragged a chair over from the corner of the room. "Sit."

"Alya, it's not so urgent that you can't put your shirt on, you know."

"Shush, girl, ain't nothing you haven't seen before."

Marinette couldn't argue with that, so she sat in silence as Alya tugged at her hair for the next few minutes. Just as she was handing her friend a second hair tie, there was a knock on the changing room door.

Nino's voice rang out from the other side. "You girls almost ready?"

With a snap of elastic and a satisfied grunt, Alya shouted back, "Geez, lemme put a shirt on!" Tittering, she patted Marinette on the shoulder before heading back towards her bag to do just that.

Marinette reached up to gently feel her hair, noting that Alya had chosen to go with pigtailed French braids in an interesting twist on her usual style that would surely hide her hair's odd lumps and bumps. Satisfied, she grabbed the plastic bag that had been provided in her borrowed locker and shoved her bathing suit inside of it. As she zipped it inside of her overnight bag, she saw that Alya had finished and was waiting by the door. She walked over to meet her and they stepped out into the pool area once again.

The group migrated to Adrien's room with no real plan for entertainment in mind, all simply unwilling to let such a fun day end so early. When they arrived, Adrien dashed ahead of the rest to discretely brush a small, black cat off of his desk and into a nearby trash can. Following him in, everyone clustered together on Adrien's large couch, debating how they should spend their time. After a few moments of deliberation, Marinette and Adrien managed to convince their friends to finally play a few rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike III.

The next hour passed in a flash as the four teens battled it out against each other. As Marinette was once again named reigning champion, Alya tossed down her controller and stretched her arms up, popping her back satisfyingly.

"Well, kids, I think it's time for Nino and I to depart." She stood up from the couch, grabbing her boyfriend's hand and tugging him up as a devious glint appeared in her eyes. "Adrien, you should walk Marinette home. I'm worried she'll slip on the ice, you know how she is."

Marinette hadn't had time to stammer out a protest—not that anything Alya had said was particularly false or unwanted, it was the principle of the thing—when the ever-chivalrous Adrien replied. "Of course, I'll make sure she gets home safe, don't worry about it."

With that reassurance, Alya and Nino departed suspiciously quickly. They dashed out of the room with hardly a wave, whispering and winking at each other the whole way. Adrien and Marinette watched them go in bemused silence.

"Well…" Adrien began, not quite sure what to say in the sudden quiet.

Marinette sighed. "I suppose it's probably about time I head home anyways, but you really don't have to walk with me. I don't want to be a bother."

"You're never a bother, Marinette. Besides, I like spending time with you."

The teens blushed themselves into silence again at Adrien's admission. A minute dragged by before Marinette could think of something to say. "Uh, me too." Another beat of silence passed before an idea sparked in the girl's mind. "Oh! If you want, you can come inside and I can take your measurements for the Ladybug onesie I promised you. And maybe you could stay for dinner?" she finished hesitantly.

The blonde positively lit up at the idea of escaping another lonely meal. "Absolutely, I'd love that!"

"O-okay, cool!" Marinette took a quick peek at her phone and saw it was already past two o'clock. "Well, I'll need to drop by the fabric store, so we should probably head out now so we have enough time."

Adrien agreed and busied himself with gathering the necessities for an outing in the surprisingly harsh winter. Once he and Marinette were all bundled up, pertinent belongings and a grumpy kwami in tow, he lead her out of his room and down the stairs towards the main entrance of the house. As he was about to turn the handle on the front door, he suddenly remembered Marinette's missing scarf. Once again, he whipped his favorite scarf off and wrapped it snugly around the girl's neck, smiling at the blush that dusted her cheeks as he did so. Motioning for her to wait there, he trotted back up the stairs, returning a moment later with a green scarf in hand. He quickly put it on before snapping up Marinette's duffel bag—despite her protests—and heading out the door into the biting cold.

He'd hardly made it two steps before slipping on an icy patch, only regaining his balance with his companion's help. _Honestly, I'm supposed to be stopping Marinette from falling, not the other way around,_ he chided himself in embarrassment.

Scorned though he was, he was not about to miss an opportunity like this. "Marinette, maybe if we hold hands we can help balance each other." He cautiously stuck a gloved hand out, nervous despite his flawless execution of the line.

With a growing blush, Marinette accepted his hand, pink mitten standing out starkly against a black background. As they began to walk, now hand-in-hand, she scooted closer to him than was probably strictly necessary, prepared to cite the whipping wind as an excuse to seek his warmth.

She needn't have worried about Adrien's reaction, as the boy also found himself drifting towards her unconsciously. They walked in comfortable silence, bent slightly into the wind as snowflakes began to drift down.

"Really, this has been the weirdest winter," Marinette remarked, holding up her free hand to catch the sparkling crystals. "It's already March; we never get snow this late."

"Yeah, and the clouds look like they've got plenty more to give."

"Hopefully we don't get caught in it." Marinette shivered at the thought, unwittingly latching onto his arm with her unoccupied hand in an attempt at feeling the smallest bit of extra warmth.

Sirens went off in Adrien's head. Marinette's coat was thick, but it wasn't thick enough to stop Adrien from registering the two soft lumps pressing against his arm. He looked down at her, biting his lip as a fire ignited in his belly, a flame that only grew as he met her blue eyes gazing up at him.

Their walk slowed to a halt as the world disappeared around them until they were completely lost in each other. Marinette marveled at her crush's angelic appearance. _Green really is his color,_ she mused, admiring how his new scarf brought out the darkest flecks of emerald in his eyes.

Adrien was thinking much the same thing about her, especially about how adorable she looked in her latest hairstyle, until Desire distracted him by poking him gently.

 _Hey,_ his mind whispered, _I think now would be a good time for that kiss._

Adrien found he agreed completely, totally enraptured as he was by his companion. He hesitantly leaned in a little—not wanting to overstep any lines Marinette was unwilling to cross, but hoping to indicate to her his intentions so she had time to stop him if need be.

He prayed she wouldn't.

Marinette's heartbeat sped up as Adrien leaned ever so slightly towards her, his breath warm on her face. Suspending her disbelief that this was actually happening, she tilted her chin up towards him, holding her breath as she waited for him to make a move.

Taking Marinette's reaction as a positive sign, Adrien started to lean in slowly. As his eyes began to flutter shut, he wondered to himself, _Am I really doing this? What about Ladybug?_

 _Who cares?_ Desire whispered, nudging Adrien's head closer to Marinette's. _Ladybug isn't here right now, Marinette is. Think about her._

With that, Adrien let himself go. He no longer cared that he hadn't defined his feelings for Marinette or if he was betraying his love for Ladybug with these actions. Desire was right, Marinette was here right now, looking devastatingly cute and indicating that she wanted to kiss him as much as he wanted it. He was beyond worrying about anything but the feeling of her lips over his.

Adrien gently slid his free hand up to cup Marinette's cheek, tilting his head toward hers as he snuck a peek through his lashes at the girl. She had her eyes closed and her chin raised, lips slightly parted and cheeks dusted pink as she waited for contact. He let his eyes close again, inching ever closer, anticipating the warmth he would feel when he placed his lips gently over hers and ki-

The searing cold of snow stung his cheek as a force caused his head to whip to the side. Adrien yelped, stepping back from Marinette as he furiously brushed the slush off of his cheek. Taking a defensive position in front of his friend, he searched for his attacker as a growl fought to break out of his throat.

From his right, he heard a small voice. "I'm sorry! We were having a snowball fight."

He turned to look for the speaker, finding it to be a young girl who was maybe nine years old. Scanning the area, he realized that they were surrounded by kids with white ammo in their gloved hands. Once he realized it was just children having fun and there was no real danger, he smiled sweetly at her. "It's okay, don't worry abo-"

He was cut off yet again, this time by a snowball hitting his back. Shocked, he turned, just in time to see Marinette stoop towards the ground and scoop up more white powder, carefully forming it into a ball.

"Traitor!" he hissed, pointing an accusing finger at his so-called friend, the almost-kiss now the furthest thing from his mind. He dashed away before she had the chance to fire off her shot, hurrying to hide with some kids behind their snow-wall barricade. Marinette ran behind the opposing blockade with the girl who had previously hit Adrien.

The children watched Adrien as he attempted to make a snowball, and their awe from being near the model quickly changed to amusement as it became clear that the great Adrien Agreste had no idea what he was doing. With a blush, he accepted the advice of a small boy on his side and was able to create his first successful snowball.

With a crow of triumph, Adrien shot up from the ground, ready to fire on Marinette's team, only to be greeted by a face full of white powder. Sputtering and pawing at his face, he launched his own attack while half-blind and was pleasantly surprised to hear Marinette yelp from afar.

Back and forth it went, neither team really gaining an advantage. Finally, when everyone was completely breathless and soaked, they called a truce. As the kids ran off to play elsewhere, Marinette and Adrien collapsed next to each other on the snow, laughing and gasping for air. Slowly, their breathing returned to normal and their giggles died out, leaving them in a comfortable silence.

It didn't last long.

"Shoot!" Marinette bolted upright suddenly, startling the boy next to her. "We were supposed to be getting fabric right now."

The teens stood up hurriedly, brushing the snow off of themselves and picking up Marinette's bag, which had been tossed aside during the battle. Marinette began rushing down the sidewalk, not looking where she was going as she pulled her phone out of her coat pocket to check the time. To be honest, she should've known she'd slip on the ice from being so careless, particularly since Alya had previously foretold it with such certainty. She sighed as she began to fall backwards, internally rolling her eyes at how predictably klutzy she was.

Thankfully, she had an equally predictable gentleman friend to gently catch her before she could complete her descent to the cold, hard ground. She smiled up at him gratefully. "Thanks, Adrien."

They didn't need to exchange words or ask for permission—their hands mutually found each other once again as they continued down the sidewalk, Marinette skillfully leading the way to her favorite fabric shop. As she stepped through the door minutes later, she inhaled the light scent of cotton that permeated the room, sighing in happiness as the warmth of one of her favorite places sank into her bones.

Adrien looked around in amazement, having never been in such a place before. He walked slowly down the aisles, pulling his gloves off so he could run his fingers gently over the bolts of fabric that occupied every inch of free space. He decided to take his time roaming and feeling all of the fabrics as Marinette found what she was looking for. He didn't want to get in her way.

Well, really he just wanted to rub his face on all of the soft things he could find without any witnesses who could use that information to embarrass him later.

That's how he was found ten minutes later when Marinette happened to wander into the same aisle as him. She let out a quiet giggle at the sight of him nuzzling a bolt of purple fleece, noting his half-lidded eyes and the rumble coming from his chest that sounded suspiciously like purring. Suppressing her laughter, Marinette slid her phone out of her pocket and took a photo of the boy, immediately setting it as her background.

Her mission accomplished, Marinette let her snickers fly full-force, startling Adrien out of his reverie with the sudden noise. She smiled teasingly as she watched him turn red. "Were you purring just now?"

"No, definitely not. Only cats do that."

"Then you must be a cat, because I definitely heard some happy rumbles coming out of you."

Adrien sniffed. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"Whatever you say, Kitty."

Adrien's heart skipped a beat at the familiar nickname, especially since Marinette's voice as she said it had sounded strikingly similar to his lady's. He struggled to think of a proper retort. "So does that make me Chat Noir? Then you must be Ladybug, because you sure are _bugging_ me."

Marinette chuckled awkwardly, feeling unnaturally flushed suddenly. She tried to act natural. "At least Ladybug is cool."

"Me-owch, that stings." Adrien could feel sweat beginning to bead on his face as he kept the friendly banter going. _Did I go too far with that one?_ he wondered in a slight panic at Marinette's serious face. _She did meet me as Chat before. What if she recognizes me because of my_ claw _some puns?!_

Meanwhile, Marinette was busy rethinking her love life. She couldn't believe she was hearing these puns from Adrien and not her cat-eared partner. _He's lucky he's so cute,_ she grumbled to herself.

"Cat got your tongue, Mari?"

"Alright, one more pun out of you and no Ladybug onesie!"

Adrien's flirtatious smirk quickly transformed into an adorable pout. "No, no, I'm sorry."

Marinette giggled. "Good. I'm going to go pay, so if you could tear yourself away from your lover that would be great."

Like a scolded puppy, Adrien trailed behind her to the counter. Marinette was certain that if he'd had ears and a tail, they would've been drooping with sadness. She patted his arm gently. "I was just kidding, Adrien, I'll make you the onesie regardless of your horrible sense of humor."

"You monster, my jokes are hilarious."

The girl snorted as she placed her items on the counter. "Whatever."

The cashier rang her up quickly, and Marinette had just reached into her purse for her wallet when a black card was slapped down on the counter. Adrien smiled at her, insisting, "I've got it. You are making it for me, after all. I'll pay you for that too, by the way."

Marinette frowned. "No, it's a gift, you don't have to pay for any of it."

"You're very sweet, but I insist. At least let me pay for this, and maybe buy you some ice cream sometime?"

Both teens paused, thinking the exact same thing. _Is that a date?_

"Sure!" Marinette blurted, forcing herself to get the words out before she became too excited to speak. _Adrien wants to go out with me!_ she trilled. _Even if it's just to pay me back, that's still progress._

"Cool." Adrien smiled calmly, ignoring the inner turmoil he was experiencing tried to determine if he wanted it to be a date or not.

The cashier handing his card back to him was what broke him out of his thoughts. He accepted it, tucking it back into his wallet as Marinette scooped her bags off the counter. They thanked the cashier and left the store, Adrien holding the door for his friend before following her out.

As they started walking down the street, the boy attempted to sneakily grab the bags from Marinette's hands to carry them.

"Hey, mister, I know what you're trying to do."

Adrien put on the most innocent face he could muster. "Who, me? I'm just being a proper gentleman, trying to carry a young lady's bags."

"Nuh uh, I appreciate the thought, but you're already carrying my duffel bag. I'll feel bad if I let you carry these too."

"But…" Adrien wanted to carry her bags, not because he didn't think she could—Marinette was actually freakishly strong, he had found out—but because it was the polite thing to do. Humorously, he remarked, "For our own safety, at least let me hold one so we can hold hands. I don't want you to fall again."

Marinette blushed before pseudo-reluctantly holding out a bag and allowing Adrien to reach across and grab it. He slipped his still empty right hand into her now free left hand, gently squeezing her mittened fingers with a smile. She smiled back as they continued to wind their way through the streets of Paris towards the Dupain-Cheng home.

Fifteen minutes later, the teens hurried through the door of the warm, empty bakery, eager to escape the quickly strengthening snowfall outside. In unison, they breathed a sigh of relief as heat started to seep back into their chilled bodies.

Sabine appeared from the back of the room, welcoming the kids with a pleasant smile. "Hello, dear," she said, kissing the top of her daughter's head. "And hello again, Adrien, I'm happy to see you again so soon. Thank you for walking Marinette home."

"It's no problem, ma'am." Adrien smiled back at the petite woman.

"Maman, I was going to take Adrien's measurements for a project, and I was hoping he could stay for dinner afterwards."

"Of course, you are always welcome, Adrien." Sabine sent Marinette a knowing look, which the girl responded to with a threatening glare. Chuckling quietly to herself, Sabine told the teens, "Why don't you head upstairs and get warm? Tom just took some croissants out of the oven, I'm sure you can convince him to share."

The kids thanked her, then Marinette lead Adrien through the back of the bakery towards the stairs, shooting another look at her mom that said, "If you embarrass me in front of him, I will never speak to you again." They began their ascent to the main living space, silent except for the tinkle of Sabine's laughter trailing from behind them.

The teens entered the living room, promptly dropping their bags and removing their winter gear. Once they were clad in only their normal clothes, Marinette led the way to the kitchen, taking a deep whiff of the chocolatey air as she walked.

"Papa, are you making hot chocolate?" she asked as she greeted the burly man with a hug.

"A sweet drink for my sweet daughter." He squeezed her gently, turning to the boy hovering a few feet away. "And of course, there's some for you, Adrien. Good to see you again, son."

"Thank you, sir, it's good to see you as well."

Tom released his daughter and swept the blonde boy up into a hug. "No need to be so formal, my boy! Relax, make yourself at home." He set the boy back on the floor before turning to pour drinks for everyone.

Adrien was slightly embarrassed by such a warm welcome, but at the same time his heart felt a little bit lighter. He never got such affection at home, and though he didn't know Tom and Sabine too well, they truly seemed to want to make him feel welcomed and cared for. _With such kind parents, it's no wonder Marinette is such a nice girl,_ he thought as he accepted a warm mug of cocoa from Tom.

"So what are two planning on doing?" Tom inquired as he took a sip of his drink, the whipped cream topping turning his mustache a milky white.

Marinette giggled, handing her father a napkin. "I'm taking Adrien's measurements for something I'm making. Maman said he can stay for dinner, too."

"Excellent!" The man clapped Adrien on the shoulder. "What would you like to eat tonight, Adrien? Sabine makes a wonderful pot-au-feu, but if you'd prefer something else just name it."

Adrien's mouth started to water as Tom mentioned the popular winter stew. "No, no, that's fine! That's actually one of my favorite dishes, and I'd love to try Sabine's."

"I'll let her know then. You two should go get busy, I expect." He turned, sliding some croissants onto a plate, before handing them to his daughter. "Take these, they're fresh out of the oven. We'll call you down when it's time to eat."

Marinette kissed her father on the cheek. "Thank you, Papa. We'll be in my room." As the man nodded in response, Marinette turned back towards Adrien and gestured that he should follow her.

The teens headed up the stairs to Marinette's room, Adrien trailing a few steps below his friend. When they reached the trap door, Marinette turned and handed Adrien the plate she was holding so that she could open the hatch. She poked her head in, blanching when she made eye contact with several Adriens already in her room.

Letting the hatch slam back down, she whipped around to face the boy below her. "Actually, Adrien, it's a bit messy right now. Would you mind waiting in the living room as I tidy up?"

Startled by the sudden question, he nodded wordlessly, turning to head back down the stairs. Marinette watched him perch on the edge of the couch, seeming slightly uncomfortable despite Tom's earlier instructions to make himself at home, but she didn't have time to worry about that. Carefully, so as not to spill her hot drink, Marinette hurried through the door and into her room, setting the mug on her desk and getting to work removing any and all incriminating evidence from sight. She muttered in frustration as she zoomed around the room, wishing she had never put back all of the pictures of the boy on the assumption that he would never return to her room after the gaming tournament.

Several minutes of listening to muffled bumping and stomping later, Adrien heard the door to Marinette's room open and tiny feet pad down the stairs. He looked up from his phone as she came towards him, cheeks slightly pinked and breathing just a bit faster than normal.

"Sorry for the wait." Marinette cursed herself for sounding so breathless, hoping Adrien wouldn't assume that she was a total slob because she had to clean up so quickly.

"Not a problem," he responded with a smile, picking up the plate in his lap and rising to stand next to her.

"Let me just grab the bags real quick, then we can head up and get started." Marinette headed towards the entryway where they had previously left her purchases, scooping them up along with her duffle bag, before heading towards the stairs. Adrien once again trailed behind her as they climbed.

The first thought that entered Adrien's head as he stepped into Marinette's room was _I still can't believe how pink it is._

Marinette blushed slightly. "Yeah, it's always been one of my favorite colors. I guess it's kind of childish."

Shoot. Adrien hadn't realized he'd said that as he thought it. Time to backtrack. "Sorry, I didn't mean it in a bad way, it's just that it makes my room seem clinical in comparison. It's not childish at all to like a particular color that much. Besides, you look great in it." He stopped his nervous rambling by shoving a croissant in his mouth.

Marinette smiled kindly at him, appreciating his words. "Thanks." She took a seat in her rolling desk chair and started unloading her bags, simultaneously motioning for Adrien to take a seat on her chaise. Still chewing, he did as instructed, watching in interest as she pulled out large amounts of a soft-looking red fabric that was dotted with small black circles. She reached back in to retrieve a long black zipper, followed by several spools of red and black thread and something that appeared to be elastic. Gently folding the paper bags, she set them aside beneath her desk to make room for spreading out her new materials.

"Okay, Adrien," she announced over her shoulder, rummaging around for her tape measure, "I'm going to get started with the measurements, if that's alright."

Finally locating the tape measure a few seconds later, she swiveled in her chair to face the boy, only to come face-to-face with a set of very attractive abs. The only sound in the room was her quiet gasp, accompanied by the soft plop of Adrien's shirt as it fell to the ground.

An embarrassing amount of time passed before Marinette was able to snap out of her frozen state and act appropriately scandalized. With a blush, she bleated, "Y-y-you don't need to strip for this!"

Internally, Libido was reminding her of all of the carefully crafted daydreams she'd had about Adrien stripping in her room. _Not helping!_ the girl scolded her mind.

Adrien, shame-faced, apologized immediately as he bent to grab his long sleeve shirt off the floor and put it back on. "I'm sorry, whenever I get measured for shoots they ask me to undress. I guess it's just a force of habit, I didn't really think about it." Smoothing his shirt back down, he shyly made eye contact with the girl sitting before him. "I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable, and I'm really sorry."

Of course, Marinette wasn't upset at him, not least because she had gotten to see his yummy tummy again. She smiled at him reassuringly. "Sorry, you didn't make me uncomfortable or anything, it just surprised me because I wasn't expecting it." She laughed, adding, "But it's probably for the best if you leave your clothes on. Wouldn't want my parents poking their heads in to snoop and getting the wrong idea."

Adrien blushed at the implication. "Good point."

"Anyways, I'll get started now. Can you stand and stick your arms out for me?"

For the next few minutes, Marinette fluttered around the boy, alternating between taking measurements and jotting notes down on a small pad of paper. Adrien followed all of her instructions silently, fascinated by watching her flit around him. Finishing up, she crossed the room to grab her extra chair and pull it up next to her workspace, beckoning Adrien to sit next to her before beginning to work on sketching a pattern.

Pencil had hardly touched paper before Marinette's phone went off loudly. Adrien passed it to her, looking over in interest as she swiped across the screen to unlock it and read Alya's message.

"She wants me to check my email," Marinette informed her companion, sliding over to her computer and pulling up a webpage. Logging in, she clicked on the newest email to see what her friend had sent her. There was a zipped file attached with no indication of what it contained, as the only message that was included was a winking face.

That alone was enough to make Marinette nervous.

The girl downloaded the file, going through the process to extract the contents and finally pulling up a window that showed her thumbnails of the files inside. She stared for a second, not comprehending what she was seeing.

Adrien burst out laughing, nearly falling out of his chair as he tried to contain himself. "Are those what I think they are?"

Marinette pulled up the pictures in a slideshow and began flipping through them one by one. The first image was of her and Adrien sleeping on Alya's couch, followed immediately by a shot of a sleepy Adrien squinting up at the camera as she remained dozing on his chest. The third picture was cute, capturing Adrien rubbing Marinette's back and trying to calm her down after she realized what was going on.

The fourth picture was where things got interesting. It showed Marinette once again reclining on Adrien's chest, both giving large smiles to the camera. The next several pictures were a sequence capturing the moment Adrien started tickling the girl, as well as her reaction through the point of her beating against his chest in frustration.

Adrien roared with laughter. "Oh my gosh, Mari, your _face_! I'm setting that as my background, send it to me."

"Are you insane? Why would I do that?"

"Fine, I'll just go to the source." Adrien began typing out a text to Alya, scooting away from Marinette as she made a grab for his phone.

"Noooooo!" Marinette glided forward, leaning as far as she could in her seat to snatch the phone, but Adrien's arms were long enough that he was able to evade her. "Give it!"

"Never!"

"Adrien!" Marinette climbed out of her chair and put her knee on the edge of Adrien's seat for balance as she reached as high as possible. Adrien just leaned farther back, cackling.

"Make me." The boy stuck his tongue out at her, grinning devilishly.

With something that was near a growl, Marinette decided to do just that. To hell with personal space, she was going to win this battle. She crawled almost completely on top of Adrien, grabbing his arm to forcefully bring the phone towards her. Still attempting to keep it out of reach, Adrien leaned farther back in his chair, struggling to stay balanced.

Sometimes being Chat Noir meant getting caught in the rain without an umbrella or getting hit by an akuma that shoots sticky goo everywhere. Other times it meant losing your center of balance and tipping a chair just slightly too far, sending yourself and the girl on top of you crashing to the ground in an ungraceful pile.

Today was one of those days.

Marinette and Adrien groaned in unison, rubbing the various spots that got bumped during the fall. Disoriented, Adrien looked up to ask if his friend was okay, only to get a mouthful of sweater.

"Eep!" Marinette shot upright, still straddling the boy. Her hands flew to her chest as a blush began to form on her cheeks.

Adrien began stuttering out apologies. "I'm so sorry! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I- Marinette, really, I swear I didn't mean to do that! Please believe me."

A new voice piped up from the trapdoor. "Oh, I didn't realize I was interrupting," Sabine mused with a sly grin. As Marinette hurriedly rolled off of Adrien, her mother raised an eyebrow. "I just wanted to let you know that dinner will be ready in twenty minutes."


	5. Chapter 5

Neither of the teens knew what to say to Sabine, having frozen from being caught in such a compromising position. Weirdly enough, she didn't seem to mind. Rather, she seemed amused by the situation.

"I'll leave you two alone," Sabine hummed, continuing to grin. As she turned to head back down the stairs, she sent a wink to her blushing daughter.

"MAMAN!"

For the second time that day, the two teens were left in a silence that echoed with the tinkle of Sabine's laughter.

Marinette covered her eyes with a hand, dragging it down slowly to rest on her cheek. "I'm so, so sorry about her. We're not actually related."

Adrien laughed, feeling the tension between them break as Marinette joined in. He smiled at her. "It's okay, that was actually pretty funny. Besides, she didn't seem mad so it's fine, right?"

Marinette nodded before pushing herself off the ground to stand. Bending over, she extended a hand to Adrien, who was still lying on the ground in the position he'd landed in. He grabbed it, allowing himself to be effortlessly lifted to standing.

The teens set up in their original positions from before Alya's email had wreaked its havoc. Adrien settled back in his chair as Marinette began sketching again, watching her intently. Within minutes, the girl had created a drawing of her vision for Adrien's onesie.

"I love it!" he exclaimed. He praised the black elastic cuffs and cute antennae on the hood until Marinette was completely red.

"Alright, it shouldn't take long to modify the pattern I used for mine." Marinette grabbed some pattern paper, glancing between her sketchbook and the lines she was drawing as she carefully measured and created the shapes she needed.

After a few minutes, she glanced at Adrien, surprised to see him watching her in silence. "I'm sorry," she fretted, scooting over towards her computer again and pulling up her library of movies. "You must be bored watching me. I'll put something on, what do you want to watch?"

"I'm fine with whatever. Disney, of course, is preferable if you have it."

The girl snorted, clicking a folder and scrolling through the contents. "Do I ever. Stop me when you see something."

He carefully watched the titles scrolling past on the screen. "Stop!" Adrien commanded, pointing at the screen. "Let's watch Mulan."

"Excellent choice." With a swift double click, the movie began playing. Marinette adjusted the volume as Adrien scooted around her to sit closer to the screen.

Thirteen minutes later, a booming voice broke through the sound of Mulan wistfully singing about her reflection and who she truly was. "Kids! Dinner is ready!"

"Coming, Papa!" Marinette reached across and slapped the space bar, pausing the movie, before shoving back her chair. Adrien followed suit, trailing down the stairs after her as he sniffed at the delightful scent in the air that drifted over from the kitchen.

The teens settled in next to each other on one side of the small kitchen table, Sabine carefully placing bowls of stew in front of them before taking a seat at the table's shorter end. Tom arrived a moment later with a pitcher of tea and a stack of cups, serving everyone a drink before sitting down across from the kids.

At Sabine's word, everyone dug in. Adrien practically melted as the first spoonful of stew hit his tastebuds.

"Mrs. Cheng—I mean, Sabine—this pot-au-feu is fantastic!"

The petite woman looked very pleased, smiling gently at the boy. "Thank you, Adrien. I'm glad you like it."

They ate in silence for a while, until Marinette happened to glance outside. "Oh my gosh, look at the snow!"

Everyone turned towards the windows, murmuring in surprise at the storm of white that was barreling down outside. Sabine gasped. "My goodness, to have such a bad storm this late in the season is unheard of."

Tom placed a hand on his wife's arm, exchanging a meaningful glance with her before turning back to the kids in front of him. He cleared his throat, catching their attention. "Adrien, Sabine and I think that it would be best if you stayed the night. It would be too dangerous for someone to come pick you up with the snow coming down so hard."

Adrien could hardly contain his glee at the thought of another sleepover with his friend, but he did his best to be polite. "I'd really appreciate that, thank you." Adrien grabbed his phone to text Nathalie about the situation, unable to stop himself from reaching under the table with his free hand to squeeze Marinette's in excitement. The girl tried to control her blush as she squeezed back, but nothing escaped the hawk-like eyes of her mother.

Once everyone had finished their meal a few moments later, Sabine stood and began gathering the dirty dishes, thanking Adrien as he leaped up to help but insisting, "Marinette will help me, won't you sweetheart?"

Marinette knew the look her mother was giving her. Nothing good ever came of that look.

Sighing quietly, she began stacking glasses and bowls before taking them to the sink. She placed them in gently, turning the water on and beginning to rinse them off one by one. Her mother stood next to her silently, simply listening to the conversation Tom had begun with Adrien for a moment.

Then, with a delicate cough, Sabine began to speak. "Marinette, I understand that you like Adrien, but, as you are not on birth control, I'd like to request that you control yourself tonight."

"Maman!" Marinette exclaimed, aghast, hands stilling under the water.

Her mother continued as though she hadn't heard. "It would be pointless asking you two to stay down here since our room is so far away, so I won't bother. I can see that you are attracted to each other, as shown by the position I found you in earlier, but you can't afford to get pregnant at this point in your life, so please abstain from any explicit activities."

Marinette was speechless at this point, but apparently her mother still had more to say. "Just remember, it can happen even if it's just one time."

The girl dropped the bowl she was washing back into the sink, turning off the water and throwing up her hands. "No, nope, we are _not_ having this talk right now. Adrien and I aren't like that, nothing will happen, and we will _never_ speak of this again." She turned on her heel, stomping towards her friend and grabbing him by the arm, tugging him over to the stairs. Adrien followed in confusion, stumbling to keep up with her as he sent a parting wave down to her parents.

The adults waved back with smiles. Tom waited until the kids were out of sight before turning to his wife, betting, "They'll be together by the end of the month."

"I guess you'll owe me a back rub in a week then." Sabine smiled, planting a kiss on her husband's cheek before returning to finish the dishes.

Marinette plopped back into her chair with a huff, Adrien settling gently in next to her with a look of concern. "Are you okay, Mari?"

The girl sighed, tugging gently on the ends of her hair—something Adrien had noticed she did when she was uncomfortable. She nodded, then switched to shaking her head, finally settling on a shrug. "Sorry," she muttered. "My mom was just being embarrassing."

The blonde nodded sympathetically, patting her on the shoulder. "Parents, right?" The fact that Adrien had never had any personal experience with embarrassing parents was beside the point.

Marinette nodded, beginning to blush. "It's just, she was suggesting that we would be doing _things_ and I tried to say that we're not like that but she just kept talking about it and ugh!" She buried her face in her hands with a moan. "It was so painful."

Adrien felt a blush of his own beginning to form at the mention of the _things_ they would not be doing. He did his best to keep his thoughts from exploring what those things could be exactly.

Okay, so maybe one or two ideas slipped through, but he figured that was pretty good for a seventeen year old boy.

Adrien cleared his throat, hoping he wasn't too obviously red. "I'm sorry about your mom. Why don't we take your mind off it by going back to the movie?"

The girl nodded in relief, desperately needing the distraction. As Adrien started Mulan up again, she picked up her pencil and resumed creating the pattern for the boy's onesie.

She peeked over at Adrien a few minutes later, giggling to herself at his mesmerized face. He heard her and glanced over, sticking his tongue out before turning his attention back to the screen. As Marinette hummed along to the music with a smile, she found herself really enjoying her friend's company. Now that she wasn't nervous, she could freely enjoy his silly commentary and bad jokes without worrying about choking on her laughter and making a fool of herself. It certainly made the somewhat bland process of drawing the pattern much more entertaining than usual.

They continued like that for some time, Marinette dedicatedly drawing as Adrien piped up with his thoughts on what was happening in the movie. It was around the time that they had started belting along to "I'll Make a Man Out of You" that they were interrupted by a knock on Marinette's door.

"Come in!" she shouted as Adrien reached over to pause the movie.

The door creaked open, two familiar faces poking through with looks of interest. Sabine smiled at them, reaching up to place a plate of cookies on the floor. "We just came up to bring some snacks and extra blankets."

 _And definitely not to snoop, yeah right,_ Marinette thought to herself with a raised eyebrow. Sabine caught sight of this and her face formed into a carefully crafted expression of innocence. _I'm on to you, Maman,_ the girl thought with a squint, as though her mother could actually hear her.

Tom reached up with the mentioned blankets and Adrien hurried over to grab them from him, placing them gently on the chaise. "Thank you, Mr. D—Tom. You could say a fluffy blanket is my _quilty_ pleasure."

The large man burst into laughter as the ladies in the room groaned.

"That was terrible. Besides, a fluffy blanket is normal to like so your joke doesn't even make sense," Marinette pointed out.

"Nonsense, that was some high-quality humor right there," her father countered. "Don't say it's a _bed_ joke right away."

Sabine chimed in suddenly. "He's right, sweetheart, maybe you should sleep on it."

"That's it. Out!" Marinette pointed forcefully at her parents. "Stop encouraging him!"

With chuckles, her parents bid them a good night before exiting and retreating to their own room.

Marinette settled back in her chair with a sigh, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. She was surprised when hands settled on her shoulders a few seconds later, gently kneading the tension out of them.

"So, what exactly do you have against puns? Who hurt you?" Though Marinette's eyes were still closed, she could hear the smile in Adrien's voice as he posed the question.

"You know, once upon a time I didn't hate them," she informed the boy. "But then I met someone who is constantly coming up with them. After a while they get tiring." She tried to keep the telling smile off her face.

Adrien caught it before she could force it away. "You're lying," he sing-songed. "You secretly think they're funny, but you don't want them to get the satisfaction, right?"

 _Rats, he's sharp,_ Marinette lamented. She peeked up at him, scowling as she tried not to grin at the silly smile he was wearing.

"Aha!" The boy paused his massage to poke her cheek accusingly. "You _do_ think they're funny, you just don't want to admit it. I saw it in your eyes."

"Nope. Absolutely false, Adrien."

"Say it."

"You just want me to think you're funny."

"Because I am. Admit it."

"Never."

He sighed dramatically. "Fine, keep lying to yourself. I know that deep inside you know my puns always make you laugh." With that, he slumped back into his chair and reached towards the keyboard to restart the movie.

Marinette couldn't help whispering to herself, "Oh, duvet really?"

Adrien's hand froze over the space bar, his head snapping around as his emerald eyes lasered in on her. "What did you just say?"

Oops. "Nothing!"

"No, no, I definitely heard you say something just now." He scooted closer. "Something that sounded very much like a pun."

"How did you even hear that?" Shoot. "I mean, I didn't say anything."

"Aha!" Adrien held his hands out, wiggling his fingers as they moved towards her sides. "You'd better tell me before I have to force it out of you."

"I said that your jokes are skeevy."

He launched forwards, looming over her as he tickled her ribcage. "Nope, definitely not what I heard, try again."

Laughing, Marinette fought to push his hands away. "I—hahaha—I said that they make me queasy."

"Don't think that's right either. Last chance before I really let you have it."

As loath as she was to admit what she had actually said, she really couldn't take much more tickling. Gasping for air through her laughter, she finally caved. "Okay—haha—okay I'll tell you—ahahaha!"

"About time," Adrien commented, stilling his hands, but keeping them lightly resting on her sides in case she was trying to trick him.

Still gasping, she finally panted out, "I said, 'Oh, duvet really?'"

Adrien froze for a moment, mind working through the pun. A humongous grin broke out on his face as he grabbed Marinette by the waist and picked her up out of her chair, stepping into the middle of the room and twirling her around.

"Adrien!" The girl reached down to grip his shoulders as she flew through the air.

"I knew you had it in you!" He laughed as he held her above his head and spun around again.

Starting to get dizzy, the boy slowed his circles, gently bringing Marinette down to rest on the floor again. She breathed a sigh of relief as she touched down, collapsing slightly into his chest when she found her legs to be a bit shaky, hands still resting on her friend's shoulders as he continued to hold her waist.

"You're crazy." Her words were muffled by his shirt, but Adrien grinned anyways.

He wrapped his arms around her more fully. "Maybe."

 _About you, definitely._ He didn't bother to stop the thought as it floated across his mind, slowly coming to terms with the fact that he was very quickly falling for this girl. He was still confused on the Ladybug issue, but once again he resolved to worry about it at another time. She wasn't there, but Marinette was.

They stayed like that for a minute, until the comfortable silence was broken by the sound of a rumbling tummy.

Adrien blushed slightly as Marinette peeked up at him. _Stupid stomach, why did you have to ruin such a great moment?_ he bemoaned.

With a giggle, Marinette poked the boy's stomach. "Are you hungry, Mr. Tummy?" She received a perfectly timed growl in response and dissolved into peals of laughter.

Adrien, though embarrassed at his body's antics, couldn't help but chuckle along. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry for, you are a growing boy after all." Marinette stepped away from his warmth to grab the plate of cookies her parents had left. "Here," she offered. "Hope you like chocolate chip."

"Who doesn't?" He grabbed one and took a bite, moaning at the flavor and eliciting another giggle from Marinette.

"That good, huh?" She picked up a cookie of her own and nibbled on it.

"That good," he agreed, snatching another cookie off the plate as he shoved the last of his first one in his mouth. He inhaled the second one, reaching for a third but hesitating as he suddenly remembered his manners.

"Have another," Marinette insisted. "And there are plenty more downstairs if you want."

With that, Adrien stopped holding back. He ate cookie after cookie, finishing the plate in less than two minutes. Marinette said nothing, simply thinking with a smile, _He can almost out-eat Tikki. Almost._

Once the plate was clean, Adrien tried to look appropriately embarrassed. Sure, Marinette had said he could have as many as he wanted, but that didn't give him permission to be a glutton. Thankfully, the girl seemed amused rather than disgusted by his display.

"Let me know if you want more later," she told him, finishing her own snack. "For now, let's get back to the movie."

Adrien agreed, resuming his seat and waiting until she was settled to press play. He got comfortable in his chair, eyes focused on the screen as he watched the characters transform into proper fighters.

As the credits rolled, Marinette sat back with a satisfied sigh. "Finally finished it."

Adrien glanced over, seeing neat stacks of paper shapes laying on the desk before her. "Wow, that was fast! Now what do you do?"

"Well, I'll pin them to the fabric and cut all of the pieces out. Then I'll sew them all together and add the finishing touches, like the elastics and zipper, and it's done."

"Is there anything I can help with?" Adrien still felt bad that he couldn't pay her for her work and thought that an ice cream date wasn't enough, so he wanted to assist her as much as he could.

"Sure." Marinette rummaged around in one of her drawers, eventually pulling out another pair of scissors. "You can help me cut. I'll show you what I want you to do after I pin one."

Sweeping the clutter on her desk to the side, Marinette grabbed her new fabric and spread it over the space. Grabbing a pincushion, she picked out some pins and began carefully attaching one of the pattern pieces to the fabric. Adrien watched intently as she worked, amazed that she could move so fast without stabbing herself.

Once the paper was secured, Marinette picked up her scissors and began to show Adrien what to do. "Really, it's just regular cutting, but you have to add the seam allowance." She sliced into the fabric, starting about two centimeters away from the paper's edge and maintaining that distance as she worked her way around it. "See, just keep about two to two and a half centimeters between you and the paper." With a final snip, she proclaimed, "And that's it."

She unpinned the fabric and set it aside, quickly reattaching the paper to the spread-out bolt and instructing Adrien to give it a go. She watched him for a few seconds to make sure he was doing it properly, before turning to pin on the next piece of paper.

They worked in tandem for several minutes, moving a good bit faster than Marinette would've been able to on her own, especially once Adrien got used to his job. In what seemed like no time at all, they had cut out all of the needed spotted fabric and organized the pieces into stacks with their corresponding patterns, so they could tell what was what.

Marinette retrieved another bolt of fabric from one of her cabinets, this one a black fleece, and unrolled it in the same way on her desk. She quickly pinned on the pattern for the hood and helped Adrien cut them out. With that, they were done.

Simultaneously, they stuck their fists out and bumped them together, mouths opening and snapping shut as they each restrained the urge to say "Pound it!"

Brushing the fist bump off as a fluke, Marinette carefully refolded the remnants of fabric. Leaning over, she dragged her sewing machine from the other side of the desk to sit in front of her. She scrounged around on her desk until she found the red thread she'd purchased earlier, easily setting it up on the machine. Grabbing the first pieces that were to be connected, she pinned them together with the bad sides out, quickly slipping them under the foot on her machine and beginning to stitch them together.

Adrien watched her work, enchanted by the whirring of the machine as it hummed along. Though he was surrounded by clothes of all kinds for his job, he hardly ever got to see them being made, and he found the process fascinating.

As she finished the line of stitches and removed the piece, Marinette noticed Adrien's intense gaze on her hands. She giggled, inquiring, "Did you want to give it a try?"

He nodded hesitantly as she pinned and placed the next pieces. Gesturing at the sewing machine, she scooted her chair over so that Adrien could position himself in front of it. He looked at her for assistance, not sure how to work it.

"At your feet is a pedal, which controls the speed of the needle. You press it with your foot and move the fabric away from you at the same time to sew it together," she supplied helpfully.

Straightening his shoulders, Adrien decided to give it his best shot. _After all,_ he mused, _I'm Chat Noir. I can take down an akuma easily, surely I can handle a little sewing._

Approximately ten seconds later, Adrien had been schooled. He mewled as he lifted up the mangled fabric, a rumpled mess with a giant ball of tangled thread dangling off of it. "Marinette, what did I do wrong?"

He looked so adorably pitiful that Marinette had a hard time holding in her laughter, but she did her best, not wanting the boy to think she was making fun of him. "Here, let me help you, she offered, sliding her chair until she was nestled up next to him.

Marinette snipped off the ball of thread, picking out the extra pieces until the fabric was like new again. She smoothed it out before setting it back under the foot and lowering it. Gently, she placed Adrien's hands on either side of the fabric, layering her own on top, his blush going unnoticed as she did. She nudged the pedal over and rested her foot on it.

"Ready?" she asked, receiving a nervous nod from the lightly pinked boy. She smiled reassuringly, before starting to apply pressure to the pedal beneath her foot.

Slowly, the machine whirred to life. Marinette gently moved Adrien's hands forward, pushing the fabric along. When it came time to adjust their hands, she stopped the machine rather than try to coordinate the movement.

"See, it's not that bad right?"

Adrien grinned sheepishly. "I guess not. I think I'll leave it to the professional though, or this will take years."

Marinette laughed. "Whatever you say. I'm glad you gave it a shot though."

"It was fun, but not for me. I'd rather watch, I think."

"That's fine," Marinette replied as she started up the machine again. "But trust me, watching will get boring eventually. Why don't you put on another movie?"

The boy agreed amiably, reaching towards the mouse to search for something to watch. Idly, he commented, "Geez, you must have every Disney movie in existence."

"I have all of the animated ones. I'm not too fond of many of the live actions, except High School Musical, of course."

"It is a classic," he agreed, still scrolling. Finally, he settled. "Why don't we just watch the second Mulan movie?"

"Sure."

At her consent, Adrien started it up. He had always liked the Mulan movies, particularly since he had been fascinated with China when he began his Mandarin lessons as a child.

Plus, Mulan was a kick-ass heroine and reminded him very much of his lady. _And, now that I think about it, Marinette, too,_ he considered. _I never realized, but they're really alike. Mari always stands up for herself and defends what she believes in, even going to great lengths to protect other people from bullies and stuff. She and Ladybug are actually very similar._

He was distracted from his musings by the action onscreen. He turned to make a comment about it to Marinette, his previous thoughts completely forgotten for the moment.

Just over an hour later, as the credits rolled, he peeked over to check on Marinette's progress with the onesie. He was amazed to see how much she had accomplished in the short amount of time. Most of the onesie was already put together, and it seemed that just the hood and zipper were missing.

"Wow, how do you do that so fast? You're like a speed demon or something." Adrien couldn't stop himself from bouncing in excitement at the thought of snuggling up in the fleece outfit in the near future.

"Practice, I guess." Marinette laughed at his obvious excitement. "And yes, it will be done in time for you to wear it to bed."

Adrien slung an arm around her shoulder, giving her a squeeze. "Have I ever told you that you're the best?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Better tell me again."

Adrien laughed. "You're the best, Marinette. Best of the best, even."

"Careful, you'll make me blush."

"What, like it's hard?" the boy teased. He laughed as, true to form, Marinette turned a lovely shade of pink.

"Shut up," she muttered.

"At least it's a good color on you, given how often you wear it."

Petulantly, Marinette informed him, "I'm just practicing for Halloween. I plan on going as a blushing person."

Adrien laughed again. "Keep up the good work then."

They fell into a comfortable silence as Marinette resumed working. Adrien didn't bother putting on another movie, satisfied to watch the girl as her lightening-fast fingers moved the fabric under the needle. The scene was mesmerizing, and Adrien fell into a daze as he stared.

What seemed like seconds later, he was awakened out of his haze by a dainty pair of fingers snapping repeatedly in his face. He shot up in surprise at the noise.

"You were drooling."

Adrien frantically wiped at his chin, mortified to have been caught in such an undignified state. His mortification turned into suspicion as his fingers continued to brush against dry skin, suspicion that was further confirmed by Marinette's sudden fit of giggles.

"Gotcha!" She winked at him as he put on an annoyed pout.

"Not funny."

"So funny," she countered. "But maybe you'll forgive me if I give you this?" She presented Adrien with the newly completed Ladybug onesie.

He shot out of his seat, holding it up to examine it. "It's perfect, Marinette!" He swooped down to hug her, before bolting upright again. "Where's the bathroom? I'm putting this on right now!"

Marinette laughed, pointing him in the right direction, and he flew off instantly. Still chuckling, she decided to take the opportunity to change into her matching onesie. She stripped quickly, changing into a white tank top and pink boyshorts before beginning to slip her Chat Noir outfit on.

Having done possibly the quickest costume change of his life, Adrien silently dashed back from the bathroom. He had intended to run in and surprise Marinette by striking a Ladybug-esque pose, but his thoughts were completely derailed by the sight before him. His eyes scanned over Marinette, who was facing away from him, still in the process of pulling her pajamas over her shoulders. His breath caught at the sight of her slim shoulders, each adorned only with a thin, white strap.

Yup, that had definitely short-circuited something important. He could never admit to anyone what had crossed his mind at that moment.

 _Snap out of it,_ he scolded himself. _You literally saw her in a_ bikini _earlier today. This should not be affecting you this much._

 _But you're alone now,_ Libido reminded him. _It's completely different._

Adrien gulped. Libido had a point, but the boy was determined to keep things on a strictly platonic level for the night. He was a guest out of necessity, not because Marinette had invited him, so he didn't want to overstep any boundaries.

Deciding to start over, Adrien took a few steps backward before once again surging towards the girl, sliding on socked feet with his hands on his hips and his chin thrust in the air, nearly knocking the hood off of his head with the force of his motion. "Ta-dah!"

Marinette jumped in surprise, turning to face him as she finished zipping up the last few inches of her onesie. When she caught sight of his ridiculous pose she snorted, blushing and covering her mouth a second later.

"Excuse me?" Adrien looked extremely miffed at the sound. "Was that a derisive snort I just heard?"

Now that just wouldn't do.

He edged towards her, bringing his arms out in front of him, fingers waggling crazily. "Don't make me tickle you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"You of all people should know that I would."

"Touché."

Adrien's plans of torturing the girl until she apologized were put on hold as another idea came to mind. "Hey, we should totally take a selfie in our matching pj's."

"S-sure!" Marinette grinned deviously, a sight that made Adrien's heart skip a beat. "But only if we can send it to Alya with absolutely no explanation and watch her freak out."

"Done."

Marinette scrabbled for her phone, nearly dropping it in her haste. She opened the camera app, handing it to Adrien to take the picture since he was the taller of the two.

Adrien slung his free arm around Marinette's shoulder as she tugged the hood of her onesie over her head. He held up the camera, angling it so that it captured as much of them as possible before instructing, "Smile!"

They took several pictures in various ridiculous poses. In one, they both put their hands up like kitten paws, while in another they pulled the ugliest faces they could. By the end of the impromptu photoshoot they were rolling on the floor laughing as tears streamed down their faces.

"Oh man." Adrien wiped the tears from his eyes as one final chuckle escaped him. "That was ridiculous."

"Let me see my phone. I want to send the first one to Alya."

Adrien obediently passed her the device, scooting across the floor to sit behind her and lean his chin on her shoulder so he could watch what was about to go down.

"Will she still be awake? What time is it?"

Marinette flashed the screen at him, showing him it wasn't even quite ten o'clock. "She'll probably be up until at least midnight, so I'm sure we'll get a response fairly quickly." With that, the girl attached the picture to a blank message and sent it.

Hardly ten seconds later, Alya's responses began rolling in. Marinette read them aloud as her phone pinged several times. "Girl! Why are you two together right now? And looking so cute and coupley! I can't believe this, how could you keep this delicious info a secret? Is that a Ladybug onesie? Why haven't you made me one of those?"

Adrien snorted with laughter as Alya's outraged comments about the fact that he had a Ladybug onesie and she didn't kept coming. "She's really upset about that of all things?"

"You know how she is about Ladybug."

"Fair point."

Finally, Alya seemingly gave up on getting answers out of her friend, saying goodnight with a final "We'll talk about this on Monday."

"So," Adrien started after a short pause. "What now?"

Marinette pondered the question. "Well, I'm about done with movies for the night."

"Agreed."

An idea came to the girl suddenly. "How about we build a fort? I haven't done that in ages."

"I haven't done that in…ever," Adrien commented with a rueful chuckle.

Marinette poked him playfully in the nose. "Well, you're about to. Let me up so we can get started."

Reluctantly, Adrien did as she asked and moved away from her so she could stand, accepting her hands when she offered them to help him up. He was still amazed that a girl her size could just pull him up like it was nothing for her, even when he played around and went boneless.

"How are you so strong? You're a midget."

"Watch your mouth, boy. I could beat the crap out of you."

Adrien shivered. "I know."

He would die before admitting that that sentence had had somewhat of an arousing effect on him.

"Good," Marinette replied as she scooped up the stack of blankets that was still sitting on her chaise, carrying them over to her desk area before dropping them in a heap on the floor. Adrien followed her, not sure what he should be doing to help.

Marinette quickly cleared the remnants of her earlier project off of her desk and shifted the chairs out of the way before digging around for her heaviest books. She created a large stack of them on the tabletop, eventually becoming satisfied with the quantity and moving her attentions back to the pile of blankets on the floor.

"Give me a hand," she instructed Adrien, digging through the pile in search of the largest blanket. Finding it, she shook it out and handed a corner to the boy. "We're going to use my desk as the base for the fort. Take your corner and stick it in the elbow of the desk, then put a book on top of it."

"Desks don't have elbows," Adrien teased as he did as he was told.

"Shut up. You know what I mean." She waited until he was finished before continuing to advise him. "Okay, now do the same thing all the way down that part of the desk," she commanded, pointing towards the side that held her computer.

With a salute, Adrien carried out the mission. Marinette rolled her eyes at his antics as she worked to do the same thing with the shorter end of the blanket, only that section was going across the shorter edge of the desk. She carefully placed the next corner on the wooden beam that ran perpendicular to the desk, shifting the small divider there so it rested on the blanket before adding a couple books to fully secure it.

For the final touch, Marinette dragged over Adrien's wheel-less chair, electing to use it to hold up the final corner of the blanket. She quickly secured it, then dashed over to her flowered trunk, tossing it open and pulling out some dark purple flat sheets.

Adrien watched with a mixture of excitement and amusement as the girl hurried back towards the fort. He wasn't sure exactly what her plan was, having nothing to go on since he'd never done this before, so he figured it'd be best if he just sat back and let her bring her vision to life.

Marinette was determined to do just that as she strategically tossed the sheets over the hanging blanket, allowing them to dangle down and cover the exposed entrances. Searching around for a moment, she managed to scrounge up some large safety pins and went to work securing the sheets more thoroughly. Finally, she hustled up the ladder to her bed, frantically tossing down pillows.

Adrien laughed as he covered his head with his arms. "Geez, warn a guy," he teased Marinette as she made her way back down the ladder.

The girl paused her frenzy with a blush, suddenly realizing that she must seem crazy getting so intense over something as childish as a fort. "Sorry, I got excited."

"It's okay. So is it done?"

Marinette stooped, pushing the pillows towards the entrance of the fort. "The main structure is, but we still have to fix the inside. Follow me." She ducked under a sheet, sweeping the cushions inside with her.

Adrien followed quickly, getting more eager by the second. He found the inside of the fort to be surprisingly roomy, but very cozy. The cat in him twitched its tail in excitement.

Marinette began unfolding the blankets that were still piled in the center of the space. Adrien helped her spread them over the floor until they were sitting on top of a plush layer. After scattering the pillows strategically about the area, Marinette proclaimed that they were finished.

Adrien wasted no time, immediately burrowing under the nearest blanket and sighing in satisfaction. He loved small, cozy spaces, and this one was probably the best he'd ever experienced. He'd have to thank Marinette for coming up with such a great idea.

He gave himself a full minute to bask in the warmth before his engrained propriety overtook him and he had to be social again. Poking his head out of the blanket, he found a very amused Marinette staring right at him.

Hoping his blush was invisible in the dim light of the fort, Adrien cleared his throat. "So, what do people normally do in these things?"

"Well, Alya and I usually just talk, or, if she really wants to know something, we'll play truth or truth."

"Wait, is that like truth or dare? But with just truths?"

"Exactly." Marinette groaned as though reliving a horrible memory. "And she never gives an out, so there's no escape."

An evil grin grew on Adrien's face. "Let's play."

"Really?" Marinette cocked an eyebrow. "You'd divulge all of your secrets to someone you've only just gotten to know better?"

"It might sound weird, but since yesterday I've had this feeling like I've known you well for a long time," he admitted.

"It's not weird. I've been thinking the same thing." Marinette laughed. "Strange, huh?"

"Yeah." Adrien laughed as well. "And, besides that, I'll be getting dirt on you too, so we'll be even."

"Fair point."

Adrien sat up, keeping the blanket wrapped around him as he scooted towards Marinette until their knees were gently touching. "Okay, so who goes first?"

"You can, if you want."

"Well, since you probably have so many secrets stuffed in that tiny body that you're ready to explode, I'll do you the favor."

"Gee, thanks," Marinette responded dryly.

"Any time. So, Mari, truth or truth?"

"You know you don't have to ask that, right?"

"Just answer the question."

The girl rolled her eyes with a muttered, "Why did I agree to this?" She sighed much more dramatically than was strictly necessary before answering. "Wow, I think I'll have to go with truth."

Adrien grinned at her feigned irritation. "Wonderful choice. Now let's see…" He glanced around the space for inspiration, his eyes finally landing on the girl's large cat pillow. "Ah, yes. Now, I know that you're _dying_ to get down and dirty with Ladybug—" He was interrupted by Marinette's disbelieving snort, which he promptly ignored. "—But how would you feel when faced with the prospect of getting it on with Chat Noir?"

Honestly, the girl was shocked by such a heavy question right out of the gate. The Ladybug in her screamed "Never!" but Marinette forced herself to reconsider the query from a civilian's point of view. Chat was objectively attractive—if he could just keep his mouth shut, he was totally her type, she was forced to admit. What harm could being honest do?

After all, it wasn't like her answer was ever going to get back to Paris' favorite kitty.

"That depends," she began slowly. "Would he be gagged for the duration of it so that the moment wouldn't be ruined by his unending puns?"

It took every ounce of model Adrien had in him to control his expression in that moment. He was unbelievably thankful that he still had the blanket pooled around him, covering his lap from view. With a hopefully-inaudible gulp, he started to respond, struggling to keep his voice level. "I mean, who knows, he might be into that kind of thing."

He was definitely into that kind of thing, he had just learned.

Marinette nodded thoughtfully, finding herself unconsciously rethinking her stance on Chat. Realizing this, she shook herself out of her musings, remembering it was her turn to ask Adrien a question. "So, what about you?"

"I'd probably do Chat, to be honest. I mean, he's just so muscular and handsome."

Marinette snorted with laughter. "You didn't let me finish my question."

Adrien blushed. "Oh, sorry." As an afterthought, he added, "My answer stands, though."

"You're ridiculous," Marinette giggled as Adrien shrugged, mostly unabashed. "Anyways, I was _going_ to ask if you would ever get with Ladybug, given the opportunity."

"Uh, heck yes. She's amazing and gorgeous, who wouldn't want to get with her?" Adrien pulled the fabric of his pajamas away from his chest. "Do you think she'd sign my onesie?"

This sent Marinette back into peals of laughter, even as her heart fluttered uncontrollably at the thought of Adrien thinking so highly of her alter-ego. "No, you dork." _Yes, anything for you, my love._

"Geez, go ahead and crush my dreams then," the boy sniffed.

"Just ask your question."

Adrien harrumphed in fake annoyance. "Fine." He thought for a moment. "Have you ever embarrassed yourself in front of someone you really like or admire?"

"Boy, have I ever." Shoot, she hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Adrien's eyes lit up as he sensed the potential for something juicy. "Oh? Do go on."

Marinette hemmed and hawed for a moment, trying to think of a way to get out of the situation. Unable to come up with anything, she resolved instead to be as vague as possible. "Oh, you know, just the normal stuff. I'm pretty klutzy, and I managed to trip myself once or twice in front of him. Nothing special." She crossed her fingers, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him.

It seemed to work. "I can totally imagine that," Adrien laughed.

Marinette did her best to seem put out by his reaction. "Whatever, go ahead and make fun if you must. Just remember, it's my turn now." She grinned as the boy suddenly sobered up, seemingly wary of the question she was about to ask.

Fortunately for Adrien, she wasn't going to attempt to embarrass him. Instead, she wanted to ask about something she had noticed since she'd started getting to know him better and realized the Adrien she thought she knew was very different from the one sitting across from her in a Ladybug onesie. She chose her words carefully. "Do you ever feel like you…wear a mask around people?"

Adrien was quiet for a moment, and Marinette worried that she had struck a nerve. Just as she was about to apologize, he started to answer.

"All the time, actually," he admitted quietly. "Mostly, it's because I'm supposed to uphold my family's image. I have to be very conscious of how I'm behaving and presenting myself at all times, so that I won't bring shame to my father."

Marinette went silent, and it was Adrien's turn to worry that he had been too serious. She frowned deeply, considering his words. "That's not fair." She shook her head in anger. "You shouldn't be restricted like that. Life is a mix of winning, jumping, running, and relaxing. You can be whoever you are."

The words echoed in Adrien's head, and for the first time in a while he felt at peace. "No one's ever really told me that." He paused, chuckling slightly. "Well, I suppose Nino has, in his own way, but no one has ever said it so eloquently."

Marinette blushed. "Okay, I have to admit, I stole that from a song."

Adrien smiled at her adorable display of honesty. "Oh? What song?"

"Ah, you probably haven't heard of it." Marinette shifted a bit in embarrassment. "It's by a Taiwanese group that my cousin recommended to me, called Men Envy Children. Uh, I started listening to them because I'm trying to improve my Chinese."

"That's really admirable."

"I guess," she shrugged, tugging on the ends of her hair. "I just felt bad that I couldn't communicate well with my uncle when he came to visit, so I figured I should try to learn on my own for next time."

Lightbulb. "You know, I could totally tutor you if you wanted," Adrien threw out casually.

"Oh, no, I couldn't trouble you like that. You're already so busy."

"It's not trouble, really." Adrien smiled reassuringly. "I think it would be fun, and we'd get to hang out more. It'd be more like a break than extra work, since you'd be there."

Marinette knew that Adrien didn't need anything else on his overflowing plate, but, dammit, she was not about to pass up such a quality opportunity when he was serving it up to her so nicely.

"Wow, okay, if you're sure then. I'd really like that."

"I'm sure. It'll be great."

They shared a smile in the dim light of their cave, enjoying just breathing in the silence.

At least, they did until the silence was broken by the sound of Adrien's giggles.

"Don't tell me," Marinette drawled wryly, remembering the last time he had suddenly burst into laughter. "You thought of another joke?"

The boy nodded enthusiastically, trying to calm himself so that he could share the hilarious tidbit he had just remembered from his late-night internet scrolling adventures. "Okay, okay. So," he began, gulping down the last of his laughter. "I bought my friend an elephant for their room. They said thanks." He paused for effect. "I said don't mention it."

Marinette stilled as her mind worked through the joke. "I don't—ohhhh," she breathed as the punchline hit her. She smacked Adrien on the shoulder, doing her best to hide her telling grin. "That's horrible."

"Your smile tells a different story."

Drat. "I'm not smiling." She was totally smiling.

Adrien smirked. "She says while smiling."

Marinette landed another smack on his shoulder with a muttered, "Shut up."

"You know you love me."

"Do I?" _Yes, I do._

Adrien was about to retort back when he was interrupted by a gigantic yawn. His hand flew up to cover his mouth as his eyes widened in surprise at the sneak attack.

Marinette laughed through a yawn of her own. "Should we go to sleep then?"

"No!" Adrien blushed at how violently the word had come out. "I'm sorry, I mean no. I just…I don't want this to end."

The girl smiled sweetly at him, reaching over to gently pat his hand. "It's okay, I understand." She searched through the blankets for her phone, suggesting, "Why don't we watch some YouTube videos or something?"

"Sure! What kind of videos?"

"Whatever you want." Finally locating her phone, she switched it on and quickly navigated to the app.

Adrien thought for a second. "Why don't you show me one of the songs from that group you were talking about?"

"Okay." Marinette typed something into her phone, hitting enter before laying down on her stomach and propping the device up against a pillow so they could both see it. Adrien sank down beside her in the same position as she pulled up a video.

"This is the song that quote came from, by the way. It's one of my favorites."

Adrien nodded, eyes focused on the screen as the video started to play. Within seconds he was in love with the band's sound, captivated by the lead singer's voice and their energy on stage. The song was catchy and upbeat, but the lyrics held a deeper meaning that called to him, and he wasn't sure he'd ever related to anything so well before.

As the song ended, he was nearly speechless. "That…that was amazing."

"Really?" Marinette smiled widely. "You really liked it that much?"

"Absolutely! Can we listen to more?"

Marinette fumbled to grab her phone. "Sure, I have a whole playlist of their music." She started up another song, setting the phone back into its resting spot against the pillow as the first notes began to play out of the speaker.

They stayed like that for a while, mostly just listening in silence. Occasionally, Adrien would share his opinion about the current song or Marinette would give him an interesting fact about the band, but beyond that the only sound in the fort was the melody that was currently echoing out.

"Oh!" Marinette exclaimed softly as a new song called 'Love Rainy Days' came on, this one a ballad rather than a more uptempo song like what had been playing so far. "This is one of my favorites, even though I normally don't like ballads."

Adrien listened intently, head resting on his crossed arms and eyes slipping closed to savor the dance of the melody. He could see why she liked it so much. The slightly melancholic tune was accompanied by the light patter of rainfall and the effect of the combination was very soothing.

"Ish nice," the boy mumbled, feeling very relaxed by the song. He smiled sleepily as Marinette's soft humming began to mix in with the music coming from the speakers. _She has a nice voice,_ he thought, as the music lulled him to sleep.

A few minutes later, Marinette noticed the boy's soft, slow breathing and smiled. _He's so adorable when he's asleep,_ she marveled. Gently, she reached down and pulled the blanket up to cover him better, then grabbed her phone and set an alarm for the morning. She snagged a pillow and blanket of her own and got cozy, sneaking as close as she dared to the snoozing boy before laying her head down and slowly drifting off to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

_Hey, guys. Sorry it's been so long, but I've been dealing with some personal stuff that made it hard for me to write. Hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently in the future. I promise I'm not going to abandon this fic, but school and my personal life have to come first most of the time. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!_

* * *

Marinette jolted awake with a shiver. Her neck. Her neck was exposed and the cold air of what she assumed to be very early morning was touching it, causing a chill to creep down her spine. She tugged on her blanket in an effort to pull it up to cover her neck, but a heavy weight lying across her waist kept the fabric annoyingly in place. She whined and tugged harder, but to no avail. Finally, she gave in, cracking her eyes open to find the culprit that was stealing her warmth, and as she glanced down her gaze landed on a ladybug-patterned arm that draped over her, pulling her towards the warm mass behind her.

She blinked a few times in confusion before the events of the previous night surfaced in her mind, images of Adrien smiling and laughing flitting through her thoughts. She smiled sleepily as she carefully reached behind her and tugged her hood up, trying not to disturb the boy behind her with the movement. Warm once more, she tried going back to sleep but found herself too awake. With a sigh, she grabbed her phone and started playing minesweeper, biding her time until Adrien woke up.

Adrien sneezed suddenly, unwittingly startling himself awake. He groaned in annoyance as he was snatched away from his lovely dream about having a picnic with his three closest friends, laughing in the sunshine without a care in the world. He sighed, keeping his eyes stubbornly closed as he pulled the pillow he was cuddling closer to his chest and buried his nose in the soft fabric. The boy inhaled deeply, enjoying the cinnamon and vanilla notes that permeated the cloth, and he sighed again, this time in satisfaction.

A giggle from right in front of his face caused his eyes to snap open and Adrien froze as he realized that what he was nuzzling was not a pillowcase but rather familiar black fleece. Looking farther down, he realized that he was snuggled up to his hostess quite closely, one arm slung carelessly across her waist as his legs tangled with hers. Peeking over her shoulder, Adrien could see that the girl was already wide awake and playing a game on her phone. He blushed as he wondered exactly how long she'd been putting up with this compromising position.

Marinette noticed the boy's movement and turned her head to look up at him. "Morning, Sleeping Beauty."

"Morning." Adrien cringed as he started to extract his limbs from her side of the blanket. "I'm so sorry you had to put up with that. You should've just woken me up. I guess I'm in the habit of cuddling something since I sleep with a body pillow at home."

The fact that it was a Ladybug body pillow was irrelevant.

Marinette grabbed his arm, holding it in place against her side as her cheeks turned slightly pink. "No, no," she murmured, giving his hand a gentle pat. "It didn't bother me. In fact, if you hadn't been there, I probably would've gotten too cold and frozen during the night."

"Guess I'm a hero then." Adrien laughed awkwardly, resisting the urge to rub the back of his neck in favor of continuing to cuddle his classmate.

"Guess so."

The teens lay there in silence for a minute, Marinette working on the game she was playing as Adrien tried to think of something to say that didn't sound totally dumb. He was finding that he was becoming more self-conscious in front of the girl, which was throwing him off because the only person he'd felt this awkward in front of before was Ladybug.

Marinette interrupted his thoughts by pinching the back of his hand gently. "Did you hear what I said?"

"I, uh, sorry, no," Adrien admitted sheepishly.

"I was asking if you wanted breakfast. We can go down to the kitchen and make something if you'd like."

As if on cue, Adrien's stomach rumbled loudly. The sound of Marinette's adorable laughter simultaneously created butterflies in his stomach and made him want to melt into the floor.

"Mr. Tummy, so nice of you to join us again."

"Oh, hush," Adrien muttered in embarrassment.

Marinette giggled again as she rolled out from under his arm and pushed herself onto her hands and knees. "Well, I guess I'll take that as a yes. Let's go downstairs."

Adrien nodded, following her through the entrance to the fort and down the steps to the living room area. They stepped into the kitchen and Marinette hopped up to sit on the counter, swinging her feet gently as she pursed her lips in thought. Adrien, not knowing what to do with himself, hovered awkwardly in front of her.

"So, what do you normally like to eat for breakfast?" Marinette asked, cocking her head to the side as she looked at him intently.

"Well, most days I just have some fruit."

The girl clucked her tongue, eying him up and down. "You are a growing boy, you need much more than just fruit." She tapped her chin, considering her options for a moment. "You seemed to like what we had at Alya's the other day. Since it's almost lunch time anyways, why don't we make some pancakes and omelets again?"

"Sure. I don't know how much I'll be able to help, though."

Marinette hopped down from the counter and headed towards the fridge, tossing over her shoulder, "Don't worry, I'll teach you."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Marinette was almost starting to regret her decision. It turned out that when Adrien said he knew nothing about cooking, he really meant it. He was doing his best to follow her instructions, but the little nuances that made the process easier and cleaner were escaping him.

"Gaah!" Adrien yelped as a large splatter of flour and water hit the apron Marinette had thankfully had the foresight to lend him.

"What happened?" she called over her shoulder as she diced vegetables for the omelets.

"I just put the flour in the bowl and everything exploded!"

Marinette giggled. "Maybe you were too forceful. Did you put it in before or after the liquids?"

A beat of silence. "After?"

"Well, there's your problem."

The pout in his voice was obvious as he asked petulantly, "How was I supposed to know it would do that?"

"You're the physics expert. What did you think would happen?"

Adrien turned back to his bowl, muttering under his breath about unhelpful girls as he scooped up another cup of flour and dumped it harder than necessary into the bowl. Immediately, a huge cloud of white puffed up and hit him in the face.

"What the—?!" he sputtered as he wiped the powder from his eyes.

Marinette turned to see what the commotion was about and began laughing, leaning over and clutching her stomach as she fought to catch her breath. "You—haha—you totally look like a raccoon!"

Adrien crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for her to calm down. When a minute had passed and she was still giggling, the boy swiped some of the flour off of his cheek and wiped it on the tip of her nose.

Marinette stared down at the white streak, eyes crossing comically as she tried to catch a glimpse of Adrien's work. After a moment, she glared at him, pouting and crossing her arms as she muttered, "Big meanie."

"You're the one who was laughing at me so much you nearly started crying!"

Marinette giggled reflexively. "It's just because you always seem perfect, because you're good at everything, but it turns out you can't cook to save your life."

"Sure, rub it in." Adrien swiped a white finger across the girl's cheek. "Just know that every time you make fun of my cooking skills, I'm going to put more flour on you."

"Fair enough." Marinette raised her eyebrow, smirking as she asked, "You burn even water, don't you?"

Another streak of powder covered the girl's forehead. "You're really asking for it."

"Am I? All I remember asking for is a batch of pancake batter."

Swipe.

"Hey!" Marinette pouted. "That wasn't even an insult technically."

"I get to decide what counts." Adrien drew one last line in white from her ear to her chin and stepped back to admire his handiwork. "There, now we're even."

"We should get back to work then. Try to keep the mess to a minimum, Monsieur Agreste." Marinette stuck her tongue out with a grin as Adrien shook his fist at her in fake anger.

The boy gave a relenting sigh. "Fine. But I'm blaming you for your terrible teaching skills if these pancakes turn out badly."

"As you wish."

They worked in silence for a few moments, and Adrien was concentrating so hard on following the steps of the recipe correctly that he almost didn't hear the sniffles start up behind him.

"Marinette?" He whirled around to find the girl sniffing as she rubbed at her eyes with the back of one wrist. "Hey, what's wrong?" Adrien set down his whisk and hurried over, gently grasping her arms and rubbing his thumbs in comforting circles. "Talk to me, are you okay?"

Marinette turned towards him, eyes red and tears streaking down her face and his heart broke. Before she could speak, he carefully removed the knife from her hand and set it down, wrapping her up in his arms and patting her back soothingly. "I'm sorry, is it because I wiped flour on you? You're okay, it'll wash off, so please don't cry."

Her body started to shake and a worried Adrien hugged her tighter, whispering apologies into her hair and wishing he knew how to comfort her. After a few seconds, the shaking intensified and Marinette began giggling loudly from within his embrace. Adrien froze in confusion as Marinette pulled back slightly from him and he saw her bright smile.

"I thought you were—huh?"

Marinette used his apron to wipe her still-watering eyes. "Adrien, I was cutting onions. The fumes make you cry—that's all it was."

"Oh." Adrien was relieved that she was okay, but embarrassed to the point where he wanted to melt into the floor. "So you're not mad at me?"

"Of course not, silly." Marinette poked him in the nose, so strongly resembling his lady for a second that he had to catch his breath. "You were so sweet to be worried about me, but I'm really okay."

Adrien blushed, suddenly releasing her and rubbing the back of his neck feverishly. "T-that's good. I'm glad."

Marinette sensed the need for a subject change, not wanting to embarrass the kind boy any further. "So, how are the pancakes coming?"

"They're ready to be cooked, I think."

"Perfect. I'm about done with the omelet veggies, too. Give me one minute and I'll teach you how to cook a proper meal."

True to her word, sixty seconds later Marinette was prepping two pans for cooking, multitasking magnificently as she started pouring a large circle of pancake batter into one while whisking together omelet ingredients for the other. Adrien watched in fascination, trying to pick up on all of her tricks. He refused her offer to let him try flipping the pancakes, figuring he'd had enough excitement for the day without the addition of getting their brunch stuck to the ceiling.

In no time at all, the food was stacked high on plates and set on the table. The teens sat next to each other, just like the night before, so that they could share the food easily. At Marinette's word, they began to dig in, neither having realized exactly how hungry they were until that moment.

"Oh my gosh!" Adrien exclaimed with his mouth full, manners nearly tossed aside in his excitement over the meal. He forced himself to swallow before continuing. "This is amazing, Marinette!"

"You should give yourself some credit. You made the pancakes, after all."

"Yeah, but I made a complete mess of it. I'm sure it was your cooking that saved it all."

Marinette giggled. "Whatever you say."

They finished their food in silence, and Adrien thanked his hostess again at the end of the meal. "Really, thank you, Marinette. It was so much fun staying over here, and the food was fantastic."

"Any time, Adrien." Marinette winced. "Well, my parents probably wouldn't let you just sleep over whenever, but you're welcome to visit any time. I can teach you how to cook more if you'd like, too."

"That would be great!" Adrien exclaimed as he helped her carry their dishes to the sink, pushing up the sleeves of his onesie so he could assist in washing them off. "It was a lot of fun, even though I was awful at it."

Marinette smiled, nudging him with her elbow. "You weren't _awful_ , you just need more practice."

Adrien smiled back at her, about to agree when he noticed the flour still covering her face and began laughing. "Yeah, hopefully I won't make such a mess next time."

Marinette turned the water off, wiping at her cheek and frowning at the powder that came off on her finger. "I'm going to go wash off in the bathroom. You can use it after if you want, Monsieur Raccoon."

"Very funny. Just go already." Adrien grinned teasingly as he made shooing motions, laughing when Marinette stuck her tongue out at him and flounced off.

She entered the bathroom, humming one of the songs they'd listened to the previous night. Quickly grabbing a washcloth from the linen closet and wetting it, Marinette began removing the flour from her cheeks. A minute later, once she was sure she'd gotten all of it off, she rinsed and wrung the cloth out, hanging it from one of the towel racks on the wall. She dried her face, then grabbed a clean washcloth and placed it on the counter for Adrien. The girl was about to leave the room when she noticed an unfamiliar pile of cloth resting on the counter. Curious, she turned back and lifted the top piece of fabric up.

A familiar scent wafted out as the shirt unfolded and Marinette let out a small gasp as she realized just what she was holding. Apparently, Adrien had been in such a rush to show off his onesie the previous night that he had forgotten his clothes in the bathroom, thereby presenting Marinette with this golden opportunity.

Though she knew she was alone in the small room, Marinette glanced around before lifting the black cotton to her nose and taking a deep sniff. She sighed happily as the scent of Adrien's cologne mixed with what had to be his unique smell clouded her mind. If only she could bottle this scent and spray it on all of her pillows.

A sudden knock on the door startled her. Adrien's voice called through the wood, "Did I really get that much on you, Mari?"

She quickly set the shirt back in its original position on top of the rest of Adrien's clothes before hurrying over to open the door. "Sorry, there was a little in my hair that I had to wash out."

Adrien smiled as they traded places. "No problem. I'll be back in a minute."

As he disappeared to wash his face, Marinette headed back to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. As she was filling her cup, a sharp scream from outside startled her and she nearly dropped her drink. She hurried to the window, groaning when she caught sight of the akuma a street over. Of course there would be an attack on such a perfect day.

Marinette raced to the bathroom, quickly shouting to Adrien that there was an akuma and she was going to go check on her parents. She instructed him to stay upstairs, not listening for a response before dashing away, heading for her balcony as she called Tikki and transformed. She clambered up the stairs to her bed and out the door, swan diving off the side of the building before slinging out her yoyo and letting it carry her to the akuma.

Meanwhile, Adrien waited until he was sure the girl had left to check on her parents, then exited the bathroom. He raced to where he'd left his bag, shaking Plagg out of his sleep and transforming before unknowingly following Marinette's path out of the bedroom.

The two met up a few minutes later, huddling together on a rooftop near the attack zone to plan. Ladybug made the first comment, muttering, "Let's get this over with. I have a friend over and I don't want him to realize I'm missing."

"What a coincidence. I'm hanging out with a friend today and sooner or later she'll come looking for me, so I want to finish quickly as well."

"Let's get down to it then." Ladybug scanned the giant, vaguely man-shaped blob that was currently devastating Paris. "Uh, any idea where the possessed item is?"

Chat Noir winced as he spotted the only thing that could possibly be hosting the akuma. "There," he stated reluctantly, pointing at a spoon that hovered in the middle of the gelatinous purple mass.

Ladybug shook her head, already dreading the battle. "Of course." She reached for her yoyo, hurling it out to attach to a chimney across the way as she instructed Chat, "You distract him, I'll figure out how to get the spoon."

"Roger that!" Chat saluted as she swung off, grabbing his baton and extending it to lower himself to the ground.

He approached the monster, not bothering to be stealthy, and began yelling to get its attention. "Hey, big guy! Down here."

Crude, but effective. The blob turned what appeared to be its head and "looked" down at the hero, who had begun banging his staff against its body.

"Yeah, over here! Look at me, grape-face!"

Across the street, Ladybug snorted at her partner's antics, shaking her head as she began to summon her lucky charm. She tossed her yoyo up, shouting out, "Lucky charm!" and caught the large, spotted hose that fell down in response with a slight grunt.

"What am I supposed to do with—" Ladybug cut herself off as she caught sight of a nearby fire hydrant. "Oh! Chat, lure him this way!" she instructed as she dashed over to the hydrant and began attaching her hose, her hands somehow knowing exactly what to do and having the strength to do it despite the fact that this was a first-time experience for her.

Chat did as she commanded, taunting the huge blob monster into following him towards her. Once it was within range, Ladybug let the water rip, directing the flow straight at the center of the monster. Because of the cool weather, the water shouldn't have been warm enough to dissolve the sugar of what Ladybug had realized was grape Jell-O, but somehow her magic hose heated it to the point where it was able to melt a hole through the middle of the monster, making it easy for Chat Noir to leap up and snatch the spoon. He tossed it to her and she dropped the hose, snapping the cursed item in half and using her yoyo to catch the akuma before it could flutter off.

"Bye bye, little butterfly," she cooed, releasing the insect into the air before hefting her lucky charm upward with a shout of "Miraculous Ladybug!"

Magic washed over everything, causing the gooey purple streets to return to normal as the grape monster transformed into an elderly man. Chat Noir helped him up, asking if he was okay.

The gentleman nodded shakily, thankfully seeming to be fine despite the gaping hole he'd had through his torso only moments before. In a wavering voice, he told them, "Oh dear, I was just so upset that there was only orange Jell-O for lunch today. Grape is my favorite, you see."

Ladybug tapped her foot impatiently as her partner left the man with the paramedics and headed back over to her, extending a fist for their traditional " _Bien joué!"_

Bumping her fist quickly against his, she reached for her yoyo. "Sorry to dash, but I really have to get back to being a proper hostess."

"Of course, my lady, and I must get back to being a proper guest." Chat winked, gracing the knuckles of her free hand with a kiss. "Have a lovely day, Bugaboo."

"You too, Kitty." With that, Ladybug swung away, making a beeline for her balcony. As she leapt over a nearby rooftop, she imagined she saw a flash of black zipping through the trap door. Cautiously, she touched down and headed inside, looking around for the possible culprit, but, after finding no one, she ultimately decided it had been a trick of the light. She de-transformed, heading to the bathroom to see if Adrien was still hiding out in there.

A knock sounded on the door as a huffing Adrien released his transformation and Plagg flipped out of his ring, a complaint about a lack of cheese surely on the tip of his tongue. The boy quickly snagged his kwami out of the air, slapping a hand over his mouth as he shouted to who he was assuming was Marinette, "Is the attack over? How are your parents?" He patted himself on the back for sounding only slightly out of breath, considering how quickly he'd sprinted back to the bathroom after the battle.

"My parents?" Marinette asked in surprise from the other side of the door, slapping her forehead as she remembered her quickly thrown together excuse. "Oh, yes! They're good, all good. Everything's good now."

 _If you say good one more time—_ she threatened herself, screaming at her brain to come up with any adjective besides "good."

"The attack is over, so it's…fine." She sighed. "I'll be waiting in the fort."

Adrien agreed, telling her he'd be right there and let out a relieved huff of air as her footsteps echoed away. Once he was sure she was out of earshot, he released his enraged kwami.

"Why aren't we home yet?" Plagg whined miserably. "I want more food."

Adrien sighed. "If I get you some food, will you behave?"

"Maybe."

That was probably the best deal he was going to get, so Adrien grabbed his forgotten clothes from the previous day and quietly exited the bathroom to sneak off to the kitchen. He mentally apologized to Marinette and her family before opening the fridge and rummaging through it until he found some cheese. It wasn't camembert, but it would do, so he slipped it into the pocket Plagg was residing in before heading stealthily up the stairs to Marinette's room.

He entered through the trap door and deposited his dirty clothes near his bag before he padded over to the fort, dropping to his hands and knees to crawl inside, where he found Marinette waiting as promised. She was wrapped up in a big blanket, only visible from the chin up, and Adrien giggled at the sight.

"Hmm?" Marinette glanced up from her phone, which she struggled to hold through the blanket, to give him a confused look. "What's funny?"

He hid his smile, clearing his throat as he replied, "Nothing. You look cozy."

The girl stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll have you know that making yourself into a burrito is very _in_ this winter."

"Well, you certainly pull it off." He winked at her as he grabbed his own blanket and settled down next to her. Once he was comfortable, he leaned over, a question about their afternoon's activities on the tip of his tongue, when his phone vibrated inside of the pocket of his onesie.

He pulled the device out, letting out a groan as he saw the name on the screen. Taking a deep breath, Adrien reluctantly answered the call with a somber, "Hello, Nathalie."

"Adrien, it is time for you to return home. I will be sending the car for you, so please be ready when it arrives. You have several appointments today and cannot afford to fool around any longer."

His eyebrow twitched as he tried to keep his tone civil. "Of course, Nathalie. Thank you." He didn't bother saying goodbye before hanging up, knowing his father's secretary was already past their conversation.

Marinette looked at him, lips pursed in concern as he let out a deep sigh and flopped onto his back. "Are you okay, Adrien?"

"Yeah. I've just been having so much fun with you that I don't want to go back to my real life."

The girl sank onto her side next to him, leaning on her elbow to prop her head up as she smiled sadly at him. "I wish you didn't have to go either, but you're welcome to come back whenever you want."

"Careful, I might just take you up on that offer."

She managed to keep herself from blushing as she replied, "Please do. I really love having you around."

Adrien smiled softly at her as he pushed himself back to sitting. "Thanks, Mari." Reluctantly, he shoved his blanket away and crawled out of the fort to begin packing his things. Marinette followed him, still wrapped in her comforter, and watched as he slowly placed items into his bag in an attempt to stall as long as possible.

Alas, in a few short minutes his bag was packed and his phone vibrated with a message from his chauffeur announcing his arrival. He sighed as he tapped out a quick response, sliding his phone back into the pocket of his onesie. In an attempt to lighten the bleak mood, Adrien quipped, "Dare me to wear this home?"

Marinette's frown shifted into a small smile. "What would your father say?"

"Probably something like, 'Honestly, Adrien, if you insist on wearing that gaudy getup at least make sure it's tailored properly.'" Adrien smiled as Marinette giggled at his imitation of the fashion mogul. "I'm not sure, really, but I imagine it would be funny. I'll let you know."

"Okay," Marinette replied with another giggle. "I suppose I should see you off now?"

"If you'd be so kind, my lady."

The back of her neck tingled at the familiarity of his words, and an image of Chat's flirtatious smirk flashed through her mind. Marinette glanced at the boy in front of her, squinting as she mentally compared his sweet smile to her partner's trademark grin.

"Uh, is there something on my face?"

The girl was startled out of her analysis by Adrien's uncertain question. She shook her head in an attempt to banish her strange thoughts, stammering out, "Oh, n-no, I was just caught up in my thoughts." She unwrapped the blanket she was wearing, dropping it on the trunk against her wall. "I guess we'd better get you downstairs before they think I'm holding you hostage."

Adrien agreed, grabbing his bag and slinging the strap over his shoulder as he followed her down the stairs. They paused to put their shoes on, before exiting the living area in silence and descending the main stairs to the ground floor. As they reached the ground level, Adrien mentioned his desire to say goodbye to Marinette's parents, so the two turned and entered the bakery.

"Hello, kids, did you sleep well?" Tom asked over his shoulder from the counter.

"Very well, Mr. D—Tom. Thank you again for letting me stay over."

Sabine appeared from behind them, apparently having run upstairs for a moment. "Oh, Adrien, are you leaving now?" She reached out to give him a warm hug. "We enjoyed having you here. Please do visit again."

Adrien smiled and hugged her back happily, replying as she released him, "I'd love to! Thank you for everything."

"Our pleasure, son," Tom assured him as he swept him up in a bear hug. "Now, I believe that your ride is waiting outside. You'd best get a move on, before they think we're holding you hostage."

Adrien chuckled. "That's exactly what Marinette said."

"Like father, like daughter." The large man ruffled said daughter's hair, ignoring her cries of protest. Adrien laughed as Marinette huffed, running her fingers over her pigtails in an attempt to make herself presentable again. The girl muttered something about life-ruining fathers before grabbing Adrien by the elbow and ushering him towards the door as he shouted a last goodbye to his hosts.

They stepped outside into the frigid morning, shoes crunching over the thin layer of snow on the sidewalk as they headed to Adrien's waiting car. The Gorilla immediately got out and rushed around to their side, opening the door for Adrien and standing stiffly as he waited for the boy to enter. Marinette thought she might've seen his lips twitch as though resisting a grin when he noticed his passenger's outfit choice.

"I guess I'll see you at school, Marinette," Adrien told her with a small smile as he made to get into the car.

"W-wait!" Marinette took a bolstering breath as those lovely emerald eyes rose to meet hers. "I was wondering if we could exchange phone numbers." She mentally high-fived herself for how confident that came out.

Adrien brightened up instantly. "Yeah, of course!" He quickly extracted his phone from his pocket, unlocking it and opening up a new contact before handing it over to her. "Here, just type yours in and I'll text you so you have mine."

Marinette did as he said, and mere seconds after returning the device she heard a ding from her pocket, signaling that she now had his number, too. With another promise to see her at school the next day, Adrien said his final goodbye and climbed into the car, waving as the vehicle pulled away.

Marinette waved until he was out of sight, a dreamy smile on her face. She tried to control her expression as she headed back through the bakery, but she saw her parents exchange knowing smiles as she passed them. Her father shot her a wink, and she scrunched up her nose at him, sticking out her tongue before leaving the bakery and dashing up the several flights of stairs to her room.

Diving into the fort, Marinette grabbed the nearest pillow and shoved her face into it, screaming in happiness as she rolled around on the floor. After a moment, she flopped onto her back, pillow falling to the side as she stared up at the blanket hovering above her. She couldn't believe how well the weekend had gone. If you'd told her on Thursday that by Sunday afternoon she'd be almost completely at ease with Adrien Agreste and even be brave enough to ask for his number, she'd have laughed in your face. She silently thanked past-Marinette for deleting Adrien's number from her phone after the voicemail debacle so that she'd have the opportunity for such an exchange.

"What's going on Marinette?" Tikki asked as she floated into the fort from wherever she'd hidden while Adrien had been over.

"I asked Adrien for his phone number, and I didn't even stutter!" Marinette sighed happily, snagging the pillow again and hugging it to her chest. "This weekend was so amazing."

Tikki giggled at the dreamy look on her charge's face as she watched her pull out her phone and add Adrien's number to her contacts, changing his contact photo to the selfie they had taken together the previous night. "I'm glad you had a good time."

"And you know something, Tikki?" Marinette rolled onto her side to face the kwami, who had perched on another pillow laying nearby. "I feel like I got to know the real Adrien Agreste, and it made me realize I was being pretty ridiculous before. He's so normal, even kind of dorky, so why did I used to be so scared of talking to him?" She huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. "I wasted a lot of time being so afraid of what he thought of me when we could've been like this the whole time."

"So does that mean you're going to ask him out now?"

Marinette choked, coughing a couple of times before stuttering out, "I-I wouldn't go t-that far."

Tikki snickered at her charge's red face, flitting over to give her a pat on the cheek before flying out of the fort and leaving the girl alone to calm down.

* * *

Just after nine that night, Adrien flipped the light on and stepped into his room, gently closing the door behind him. Carelessly dropping his bag on the floor, he shuffled over to his bed and flopped face-first onto the comforter, letting out a content sigh as he was finally able to relax. The day's shoot had been stressful and way too long, and Adrien had never been happier to be home.

He had almost started dozing off when his phone chimed from within his bag, causing him to stir. With a grunt, he sat up and leaned over, tugging the bag closer and fishing the device out. He grinned when he saw Marinette's name displayed on the screen and quickly slid his thumb across the lock to read her message.

 **Marinette: Hey, how was work?**

Before he had the chance to reply, another message popped up on her side of the screen.

 **Marinette: Uh, that's assuming you're done by now. But I figured this late you would be.**

 _Adrien: Yeah, I just got home actually. You have great timing._

 **Marinette: Lucky guess.**

 _Adrien: Haha. Work wasn't so bad, but I'm glad it's over. Now I can just relax for a bit. I was thinking of reading or playing some computer games._

 **Marinette: What games? Mecha Strike?**

 _Adrien: Actually, there's this MMORPG I've gotten really into recently…It's kind of nerdy but the lore is really cool. It's about fighting evil dragons and elves and stuff to save a kingdom._

 **Marinette: Wait, are you talking about Mystic Story?**

 _Adrien: Yeah, you know it?_

 **Marinette: Know it? I'm only a level 103 Beastclan master ;)**

 _Adrien: No way! If you're free, do you want to quest together?_

It was then that Marinette had to take a break from texting to dance around her room in excitement. She and Adrien shared a common interest and he wanted to play together! She couldn't believe her luck, even if she was Ladybug.

"Tikki, quick, pinch me!" Marinette sang as she twirled around, narrowly missing stubbing her toe on her desk chair. She grinned as she flopped back down in it, turning to grab her phone when a sharp pain in her cheek startled her. "Ow!"

"What? You asked me to." Tikki smiled deviously as she pecked Marinette in the place where she'd pinched her previously.

Marinette couldn't argue with that, so she turned back to her thread with Adrien, tapping out another message.

 **Marinette: Yeah, I'm not doing anything. I can hop on now if you're ready?**

 _Adrien: Give me two minutes, I'll text you._

Marinette sent back an "Okay" and scooted her chair over to her computer, waking it up and double clicking the icon on her desktop to launch the game. She put on her headset and hummed along to the music that played as it loaded, tapping her fingers on the desk as she eagerly awaited Adrien's message. She didn't have to wait long, and when her phone dinged a few seconds later she scooped it up instantly.

 _Adrien: I'm all set up. I usually play on Keriso, server 15 because it's quiet, but we can go somewhere else if you'd like._

 **Marinette: That's fine. I'll meet you in the inn in a sec.**

Marinette logged herself in and selected the area that Adrien had mentioned, tapping her toes impatiently as the screen went to black before lighting back up as her character materialized in Oswald's Inn. She glanced around the area, but it was empty, so she had her character take a seat at the bar while she waited for Adrien to appear. She hummed along with the theme music as she scrolled through her inventory, biding her time.

A ping caught her attention, and she looked to the bottom of her screen to see that she had a new message, which read, "Hi. It's Adrien."

She friended him immediately, holding back laughter as her fingers flew over her keyboard, asking if he wanted to use the in-game voice chat. It was only after he said yes and they had been connected that she let her giggles loose.

"Oh my gosh, Adrien, your name is 'Monsieur Ladybug?' " Marinette was flattered that Adrien was such a big fan of her alter-ego, but she couldn't help but find the name somewhat silly. The fact that his mage was decked out in all red and black didn't help much. "You're such a dork."

"Um, I'm sorry, who said that? Was it the lady in black and green who goes by the name 'Cat-whisperer?' " Marinette was silent, because he did have a point, and she could practically hear the smirk in his voice when, after a beat, he said, "That's what I thought."

"Shut up, pretty boy," she grumbled petulantly, finding it much easier to joke around when she wasn't staring at Adrien's perfect face.

The sound of a raspberry echoed through her headphones. "Make me, pretty girl."

There was a moment of silence as both parties froze and blushed in unknowing unison. Marinette's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest as she wondered if he'd just been imitating her or if he actually meant it. Meanwhile, Adrien was somewhat less than surprised to realize he'd totally meant it, but completely mortified because he hadn't meant to actually _say_ it.

Marinette recovered first, diffusing the awkward silence with a dainty clear of her throat and a quick, "So, Monsieur Ladybug, what level are you?"

With that, they fell into a conversation about what quests they could do together that would help Adrien advance the twenty levels that separated his character from Marinette's. They elected to first journey to find some dragon scales to be used in an anti-venom potion and quickly set off into the game's enchanted forest. They battled their way through several screens of various magical creatures, finally making their way to the area's boss level.

The two waited on a ledge at the top of the screen, watching the dragon boss roam the floor below them as they briefly discussed strategy.

Marinette proposed a simple one-two. "Okay, you go in from the front and draw his fire. My finisher is almost charged, so I'll come in from behind and try to end it quickly."

"Sounds good to me." Adrien, completely at ease in his familiar role, immediately hopped down in front of the dragon and shot it with a lightening strike. "Hey, small fry, blow me a kiss!"

Marinette laughed as the dragon shot a bolt of flame at him and he shrieked, jumping out of the way. As he continued to antagonize the boss and dodge its attacks, she snuck across the floating platforms at the top of the screen, sliding down a hanging vine to land behind the beast. She paused briefly, deciding which animal mode to use. Being a Beastclan master meant that she had the powers of several animals at her disposal, and choosing the right one could mean the difference between a quick win and a total defeat. Making her decision, she switched her character into wolf mode and began to hack and slice away at the dragon's rear end. In just a few seconds, her ultimate move was fully charged and she targeted the boss, releasing the power in a flurry of blue and purple slashes that completely engulfed it.

When the light cleared a moment later, Adrien and Marinette whooped in delight as it was revealed that the boss had been defeated. They quickly snagged the drops and exited the dungeon to deliver the potion ingredients and finish their quest.

Once they'd traded the scales for a reward, they picked a new mission and set out. Both of the teens found that they really enjoyed playing together, and time flew by. Before they knew it, it was nearing one in the morning.

"So now we can take the—" Marinette interrupted herself mid-sentence with a gigantic yawn that made her eyes water. Over the voice chat, she heard Adrien giggle, which was cut off by a yawn of his own.

"Holy cow, it's late," the boy commented, suddenly sounding exhausted.

Marinette rubbed her eyes, glancing at the clock. "Yeah." She groaned suddenly. "Ugh, and it's a school night, too."

"As much as I hate to say this, we'd better get some sleep."

"You're right." Marinette let loose another yawn as she stretched her arms over her head, smiling as she heard Adrien's answering yawn a few seconds later. "I'll see you at school tomorrow?"

"Definitely. We can plan our next quest during lunch."

"Sounds good. Well, goodnight, Adrien."

"Goodnight, Mari."

Marinette ended the call and logged out of the game before shutting her computer off. Her exhaustion hit her all at once, and she barely remembered to grab her phone before climbing into bed, extremely thankful that she had thought to brush her teeth and wash her face before sitting down to game.

Tikki flitted up to say goodnight, only to find that her charge had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. The kwami chuckled, carefully grabbing Marinette's phone from where it lay on the mattress and setting it on the shelf. She checked that the morning's alarms were set; she'd hate for Marinette to oversleep when she was so looking forward to meeting Adrien. Tikki giggled to herself as she realized that, no matter her efforts, Marinette would almost certainly find a way to be late anyways.

Satisfied that she'd done all she could, the tired kwami floated back down to the pillow, placing a tiny kiss on Marinette's forehead before she, too, curled up in a little ball and drifted off to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Marinette nuzzled into her pillow, enjoying the warmth of her soft blankets with eyes shut tight against the sunlight that filtered down from the trap door above her. She frowned as her alarm went off, and she slowly reached up to set her phone to snooze. She could afford to sleep for another five minutes. In fact, she'd done so well this weekend that she _deserved_ to sleep for another five minutes.

The soft buzzing of her phone on the shelf disagreed with her, insisting quietly that she open her eyes and greet the day. Marinette, having stayed up long past her bedtime, didn't want to face the day quite yet. Still, someone had to stop that buzzing, so she snatched her phone from above her to turn the ringer to silent.

As she fumbled with the buttons, her phone continued to buzz insistently. Marinette finally gave in, cracking her eyes open reluctantly and giving the screen a disdainful glare. When she saw the notification on the screen, alerting her to the fact that she had 26 unread messages from one Adrien Agreste, her eyes widened and her heart began to race. Her excitement lasted only as long as it took her to glance at the time and realize that she had less than seven minutes to get to class.

Marinette shot out of bed, heart pounding as dashed down the stairs to the main area of her room and got dressed in a whirlwind of black and pink. The last time she'd been late, Mme. Mendeleiev threatened to give her a detention should she be tardy again, and Marinette knew full well that she'd make good on her word if given the chance. She had to make it in time.

Four minutes.

She grabbed her purse and school bag, calling for Tikki as she snatched her phone off her desk, where she'd haphazardly thrown it before changing, and lifted the trap door. The kwami zoomed out of the kitchen as she hurtled down the stairs, face covered in cookie crumbs.

"Tikki! Why didn't you wake me?"

Tikki looked offended, crossing her small arms across her chest. "I did, and you said you were getting up—not that I should've believed that—and that you really meant it because you wanted to see Adrien."

"Adrien!" Marinette gasped, reminded of the yet-unread messages on her phone and suddenly desperate to pull it out and find out why he'd texted her so many times. She slid the device out of her purse, her fingers absolutely itching to unlock it and see what he'd written, when she noticed the time.

Three minutes.

"Gaaaah!" Marinette tossed her phone back in her bag, barely leaving it open long enough for Tikki to slip inside, and dashed for the door. She shoved her feet into her boots as she grabbed her coat, throwing the door open and running out without bothering to put it on. There was no time, so hopefully the sprinting she was about to do would warm her body enough in the cold March morning to keep her from freezing to death. Although, if she did freeze, at least Mme. Mendeleiev couldn't give her detention.

The girl leapt down the stairs, nearly losing her balance halfway and tumbling down to the ground floor. She sped out the side door, forgoing the bakery in the interest of avoiding a time-consuming goodbye with her parents, and stretched her legs as much as she could while sprinting towards the school.

Thank goodness she lived so close, or she'd be considered a delinquent by now for the sheer number of tardiness-induced detentions she'd have received.

With less than a minute to spare, a shivering Marinette bolted up the stairs in a mad dash for her classroom. Completely winded, she lunged for the door and yanked it open, dragging herself inside as her classmates gaped at her. She rounded the corner of Adrien and Nino's desk, her momentum nearly causing her to slide into Chloe as she made the turn, before she regained her footing and leapt up the last stair, launching herself into her seat—and halfway into Alya's lap—just as the final bell rang.

Victorious, she scooted off of her best friend with a breathy apology and flopped down onto her desk. As Marinette fought to catch her breath, she could feel the eyes of her silent classmates focused on her like lasers. Marinette's gasping was the only sound in the room until someone towards the back started applauding.

The winded girl began turning red as the applause grew louder. Apparently she had impressed everyone with her dramatic last-second arrival and determination to be on time. Fantastic.

"Woo-hoo! Take a bow, Mari!" Alix called from across the aisle. Someone—her money was on Kim—whistled loudly behind her as the rest of her classmates clapped politely.

An embarrassed Marinette waved them off before burying her head in her arms with a sigh, relief flowing through her when the teacher called for attention and started the lesson, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

 _Great way to start the morning, girl,_ she chided herself. _You wanted to impress Adrien, right? This was definitely not the way to do that._

 _Maybe he didn't notice?_ Optimism suggested from the corner. The other parts of Marinette's mind turned to stare at her.

 _Sure, it's not like she burst into the room all red-faced and gasping with limbs akimbo before practically tripping up the stairs and catapulting herself into her best friend's lap._ Sarcasm tapped her chin as though thinking for a moment. _Oh wait, that's exactly what happened._

 _Guys, be quiet, I need to think,_ Marinette begged. For a moment she considered that talking to named personalities in her head probably wasn't normal, but decided that it was a problem for another time.

Taking a deep breath, Marinette tried to clear her mind. The last thing she needed after earning a scalding glare from the teacher for nearly being tardy was to be called out for not paying attention in class. Slowly, she leaned down and grabbed her tablet out of her bag, setting it on the desk in front of her and opening her notes. Her hand started moving on autopilot, jotting down whatever it was Mme. Mendeleiev was saying. Marinette swore that if you asked her what the lecture was about she'd have no idea, but at least it looked like she was paying attention.

The rest of the lecture went much the same way. She'd drift off for a moment, imaginary personalities arguing back and forth in her mind—she should really get that checked out—before making a conscious effort to zone back in and pay attention to the lesson. Granted, if there was a pop quiz there was no way she would pass, but, considering the situation, Marinette felt that she was making a decent effort.

Finally, class was released for a brief break before the next period. Marinette sighed in relief as she put her stylus down and shut off her tablet. She was just turning towards Alya to say a proper good morning, when she was interrupted by the bespectacled girl herself.

"Girl, you are a hot mess this morning. How bad did you oversleep this time?"

A startled Marinette, fully aware of Nino and Adrien's eyes suddenly focused on her, could only manage a subdued, "Huh?"

Alya tsked in her motherly way. "Your buttons are done up wrong and your hair is a wreck. Poor dear, let Mama help you."

Now extremely embarrassed and still at a loss, Marinette found herself acting as Alya's puppet, bending to the girl's whims as she turned and positioned her so that she could discretely redo the buttons on her shirt. Marinette watched in silence, still not quite awake enough to function, when she was again startled, this time by hands settling gently on her shoulders.

"Hold still, please," Adrien requested from behind her, and Marinette froze, though more from his proximity than his polite instruction. A moment later, she felt fingers gingerly working their way through a clump of tangled hair.

Adrien delicately untangled the thick, dark strands, amazed at their softness. Once he'd gotten the worst of the knots out of one pigtail, he carefully undid the ever-present hair tie, sliding it onto his wrist for the time being. He ran his fingers through the length of her freed hair, smoothing out flyaways and smaller lumps. Finding himself becoming hypnotized by the soothing repetition, he shook himself out of his stupor and hurried to repeat the process on the other side of the girl's head.

Meanwhile, Marinette was in heaven under Adrien's diligent hands. She'd always liked having her hair played with, though usually it was her mom or Alya doing the playing, and the added stimulation of having her crush so close to her was causing an intense reaction. Her neck was tingly and she felt as though a round of fireworks was going off in her stomach with every gentle tug of Adrien's hands through her hair. She held her breath for a moment, making a silent wish that the experience would never end.

When Alya had finished fixing Marinette's buttons, she climbed over the bench and came around to Adrien's side to check out his work. Marinette detected a hint of surprise in her voice as she commended, "Nice job, Agreste."

"Thanks!" Adrien beamed as his hands continued to work deftly with his subject's hair. "I love doing hair, actually. Sometimes, if we have a break on set, I'll get one of the hairdressers to show me new styles. It's really cool…" Adrien's voice trailed off as he noticed Nino and Alya's eyes boring into him. His cheeks started to redden as he realized that maybe what he was saying was weird or lame to his friends. "Uh—"

Nino clapped him on the shoulder. "Dude, that's rad. You're really good at it, too."

Alya nodded in agreement as Adrien twisted the hair elastic around one more time, releasing it with a soft snap. He smiled as she pulled her phone out and took a picture of the back of Marinette's head, passing it around to the girl so she could see what he'd done.

Marinette gripped the device excitedly, letting out a soft gasp as she took in the image. Adrien had braided pieces of hair on either side of her head and connected them in the back like a crown, then used the rest of her hair to create a bun beneath it. It was a simple style, but because Marinette had had no idea that Adrien knew anything about doing hair, she found it striking.

"Do you like it?" Adrien piped up hesitantly from behind her.

Marinette turned slightly, looking back over her shoulder at him with a wide grin. "I love it!"

The bell rang, interrupting any further conversation, and Adrien and Nino made their way back down to their seats as the teacher entered the classroom and began setting up at the front. While she was still distracted with her roll book, Alya leaned forward and tapped Adrien on the shoulder, whispering, "You're doing my hair during lunch."

Adrien nodded silently with a small smile, and Alya sat back in her seat, satisfied. She quickly tore a scrap of paper out of her notebook and scribbled a note to Mari, asking if they could all have lunch at her place. She folded it up and flicked it across the desk to her seat mate, tapping her fingers on the desk as she watched the girl discretely unfold it under the desk and read it. With a glance at the teacher, Marinette reached into her backpack to grab her phone and send a quick text. After a moment, she smiled slightly at her phone and sent Alya a quick thumbs up before picking up her stylus to take notes.

Alya felt a sly grin spread over her face as she began taking her own notes. Her plan to get Adrien and Marinette to become better friends had progressed even better than expected, judging by how comfortable they'd been around each other just moments before. She looked forward to how a group lunch in close quarters at Marinette's house would play out.

When the bell for lunch finally rang, Alya shot out of her seat, scooping her things into her bag with careless grace before grabbing Marinette by the hand and tugging her towards the door. As they made their way out of the room, she tossed over her shoulder, "Come on, slowpokes! Mari's mom made us food."

Adrien felt his mouth begin to water at the mere mention of Sabine's cooking. At this rate, his diet was going to be completely spoiled and his father would be getting onto his case about watching his figure. However, the boy found he cared less and less about what his father thought as he discovered more important things. Things like delicious food prepared by a loving mother who seemed practically willing to adopt him at a moments notice.

Ever since he'd started hanging out with Marinette more he'd been living the good life, and he couldn't get enough of being around her and her parents. He really owed her a thank you, and began wondering if there was some sort of gift he could buy her to show his appreciation. As he and Nino trailed behind the girls on their way to the Dupain-Cheng's, he nudged his friend with his elbow.

"Hmm?" Nino hummed without looking up from his phone.

"What kind of present do you give someone when you really like them and their family and want to stay with them forever?"

Nino raised an amused eyebrow. "Uh, a wedding ring?"

"Nino!"

Alya whipped around at Adrien's affronted cry, crossing her arms under her breasts as she cocked a hip. "What exactly is going on back there?"

"Nothing," the boys chorused in unison, Nino wearing a face of extreme amusement as Adrien looked significantly more embarrassed. When he caught Marinette's concerned eyes with his, he felt his cheeks begin to burn.

Alya's grin widened. "That sure doesn't look like nothing. Were you checking out Mari's cute little behind or something?"

As Marinette began to turn pink, Adrien sputtered, "No!" Turning even redder, he was sure, he unstuck his feet from where they'd seemingly become glued to the ground and made a beeline for the bakery's front door. As his friends followed behind him, he ignored the chuckling and whispers coming from Nino and Alya in an attempt to quell his blushing cheeks.

Finally reaching the bakery, Adrien swung the door open and stepped inside, inhaling the scent of fresh bread before letting out a sigh of longing. He wondered what it must be like to get to work in a place that smelt so amazing every day. With another deep sniff, Adrien decided his future goal was to live somewhere that always smelt like his favorite bakery.

 _Maybe Nino's not too far off with that wedding ring thinking,_ Devil suggested nonchalantly.

Adrien blushed to himself, but had to admit that the idea was somewhat enticing. For only having gotten to know Marinette well over the last 72 hours, he was in deep.

"Hello!" Sabine called as she appeared from behind one of the display cases, her diminutive frame having been hidden while she placed new pastries on the shelf. "Welcome, kids. Lunch is waiting for you upstairs."

The teens chorused their thanks as they made their way to the back of the bakery and through the door to the stairs. They climbed in silence, hurrying up the steps with grumbling tummies towards the main living area. Upon entering, they removed their winter clothes and hung them nicely before scurrying towards the kitchen to find their lunch.

"Hello, hello!" Tom greeted them with a large smile, waving them in. "Sit down, kids, make yourselves at home."

With a chorused, "Thanks!" they did just that, Alya and Nino settling in next to each other on one side of the table and leaving Marinette and Adrien to sit together opposite them. Tom quickly grabbed some plates of what appeared to be some sort of fish from the counter and set one in front of each teen, also placing a large bowl of salad in the center of the table. He bustled away, returning with a plate of sliced bread, fresh from the oven, and a small variety of spreads. Upon depositing these on the table as well, he wished them a merry lunch and hurried back down the stairs to return to work.

The kids dug in immediately, and Nino and Adrien moaned over the rare treat that was eating Dupain-Cheng cooking. With his mouth full, Nino commented, "You're so lucky you live here, Mari."

Adrien nodded in agreement. Sure, his in-home professional chef was a master of his trade, but there was just something about the love and care that Tom and Sabine put into their food that made it taste a thousand times better. Plus, they never restricted him from eating as much as he wanted.

Once they'd polished off the spread they'd been presented, Marinette suggested the group move to her room for the rest of the lunch hour. After attempting to wash their dishes and being waved off by a Sabine who had appeared out of nowhere, they grabbed their bags and followed Marinette up the stairs to her room. Alya immediately claimed the chaise, flopping onto it spread-eagled. Nino sidled up next to her, convincing her to share with a couple of kisses, and Marinette moved to her desk chair. Adrien, not sure what to do with himself, perched on the edge of the trunk Marinette kept all her blankets in.

Alya crinkled her nose at him with a thoughtful pout. "Mari, you've really got to get more seating. Poor Adrien is stuck in the corner all by himself."

"No, no, it's fine!" Adrien dismissed, waving his hands carelessly. He didn't mind sitting off to the side; he was completely satisfied just being able to hang out with his friends at all. Granted, he was a bit jealous of how cozy Alya and Nino looked all snuggled up on the chaise. Unconsciously, his eyes darted over to Marinette, widening in surprise when he noticed her peeking over at him with a thoughtful look on her face before her gaze drifted back over to the lovebirds.

 _Was she…?_ Adrien looked away, unwilling to allow himself the satisfaction of finishing the question for the sake of getting ahead of himself. _Calm down, boy, just because you accidentally cuddled once or twice and definitely want a repeat performance doesn't mean she does._ Even as he thought that, he was unable to keep his eyes from wandering back towards Marinette.

Marinette smiled softly at the couple cuddled up on her lounger. Nino and Alya had been a long time coming, and they really did make the sweetest couple. Without thinking, the girl let her stare trail dreamily back towards the blonde seated at the edge of the room, barely managing to stifle a surprised squeak as she encountered his emerald gaze trained on her face, the unreadable question in his eyes causing a slight furrow in his brow.

How was it fair that he was so adorable even deep in thought?

With a hopefully invisible blush stinging her cheeks, Marinette turned back to the instigator of their lunch hour get-together. "So, Alya, what should we do now?"

The bespectacled girl straightened slightly in her seat, her back resting against Nino's chest as he cradled her from behind. Mindlessly drawing circles over the arms that were wrapped around her waist, she pursed her lips in thought. As she glanced around the room for inspiration, her eyes settled on the apple-shaped pincushion on Marinette's desk and an idea sparked in her brain. She had wanted to see how they interacted in close quarters, and this game was going to give her exactly what she desired, plus the chance to embarrass the life out of her friends.

Alya grinned slyly, gaze sliding over to rest on Marinette's cautious expression. Not bothering to hide the satisfaction in her voice, she asked, "Mari, do you have any oranges downstairs?"

Marinette raised an eyebrow, not sure where this was going but certain that her bestie had something devious in mind. "I think Papa bought some the other day for some new tarts he was experimenting with. I can go check, I guess."

With a sharp nod, Alya sent her off down the stairs in search of the fruit. Turning her attention to the boys in the room, she unwrapped herself from Nino's embrace and stood from the lounger, gesturing for them to do the same. As they joined her in the center of the room, Marinette made her reappearance, orange clutched in one small hand.

With a shrug, she passed the citrus to the group's resident schemer, figuring that whatever Alya had in mind surely couldn't be worse than the game of truth-or-dare from the other night's sleepover.

"Alright, kids, who's ready for today's game?" Alya didn't wait for a reply before charging onward. "Today's entertainment will come in the form of a delightful pastime called 'Pass the Orange.'"

Nino suppressed a grin as he recognized the name, catching on to what his partner in crime had in mind. _Oh, she's devious,_ he thought fondly. _I sure know how to pick 'em._

Meanwhile, Alya continued her explanation in the game upon receiving blank stares from the majority of the group. "The game is simple. We'll form a circle, and everyone has to pass the orange around it." If anything, Marinette's already suspicious gaze only grew darker from the seeming simplicity of the game. Alya smirked; her best friend knew her too well.

"Of course," she added after a slight pause. "It would be too easy without any other rules, so the trick is that you aren't allowed to use your hands." Nervous realization was now dawning on Marinette's face, but Adrien still looked confused, so Alya decided an example was necessary. Grabbing her boyfriend by the wrist, she stated, "Allow us to demonstrate."

Carefully placing the orange under her chin, the girl stood on her tip-toes, thrusting her chest out and angling her neck to present the fruit to her boyfriend. Nino, ever the willing assistant, winked at Adrien and Marinette before sliding his body alongside his partner's and leaning in to clench the orange between his own chin and chest. Once the citrus was secured, Alya gently detached herself from it and settled back on her heels, waving at her helper with a flourish. "And that's how it's done!"

Marinette's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest after seeing how close the pair had gotten during their demonstration, and she tried to rationalize with herself. _It won't be that bad, it's just some harmless fun. It's not like there's a punishment like with some of Alya's other games._

"Oh, and let's not forget to discuss the consequences of _dropping_ the orange." The bespectacled girl shot the group one of her signature winks.

Marinette cursed internally. _Is she a mind-reader or something?_

"Should you be so careless as to drop the package—" Here, everyone unconsciously glanced at their notoriously clumsy friend as Marinette looked down at her feet, nibbling on her lip anxiously. "—I will require that you perform a dare that the person to your left will choose."

Instinctively, Marinette glanced to her left, reassured at the sight of Adrien's lanky form filling the space rather than her best friend's curvaceous one. Lord knows the last thing she needed was for Alya to have a direct line of attack for when she inevitably dropped the orange. Adrien was too sweet to do anything too embarrassing to her, and she sighed quietly in relief. Granted, Alya was on Adrien's left, so the potential for utter embarrassment did exist, but the boy was much more coordinated than she was, which laid the majority of her fears to rest.

"Is everyone ready?" Alya asked as Nino returned the orange to her extended hand. Upon receiving hesitant nods, she placed the orange under her chin and turned to Adrien. "Let's get this party started then, sunshine."

Adrien leaned down, gingerly closing the gap between himself and the slyly grinning girl. His chin nudged the orange gently as he sought the proper angle, and when he'd finally found purchase, he told Alya he had it.

He did not have it.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. As Alya's chin moved away from his, the orange rolled over his collar bone, slipping to the floor where it landed with a small bounce. He gaped at the orange globe as it rolled to a stop on the carpet, shocked that he'd managed to mess things up so quickly. With a thick swallow, he turned back towards the girl on his left, awaiting his required punishment.

Alya looked him over with narrowed eyes, seemingly debating what to do with him. Finally, with a small sigh, she said, "I'll let you off easy, since it was the first turn." Her lips twitched into a small grin. "I've wanted to see this for a while, since the physical resemblance is undeniable. Adrien, I dare you to do your best Chat Noir impression."

Adrien's heart stilled for a beat and he struggled to keep his face passive. He could do this. No one said it had to be a convincing impression, right? He'd just do a bad job, and no one would be the wiser about his secret identity.

"Okay, sure," he replied with what he hoped was a winning smile. Somewhat stiffly striking a pose, he forced his lips into a smirk. "This game is fun, but orange puns are hard to come by. You might say it's a _fruitless_ venture."

His friends stared at him in shocked silence, and with every passing second Adrien grew more and more certain that he'd just let the proverbial cat out of the bag. His mind began to dissolve into panicked mush as he reached up to rub the back of his neck uncomfortably.

Suddenly, Alya burst into laughter and punched him gently in the shoulder. Adrien chuckled nervously along with her until she paused, wiping her eyes before commenting, "That was great! As expected from one of my most dedicated followers, you sure know your stuff."

Nino grinned in amusement at the exchange, and Adrien was relieved to see that he appeared to be none the wiser. His shoulders relaxed slightly as he turned to check out Marinette's reaction to his impression of himself, tensing back up at the inscrutable look she was giving him. His heart skipped a beat as her bluebell eyes bored into his, her face carefully neutral. He wondered exactly what she was thinking about, looking at him like that.

The boy probably would've been shocked by the stream of unintelligible cursing running through Marinette's mind as she thought over his display. _It can't be…can it? That pun came to him way too easily, he didn't even hesitate._

Denial slipped in through the back door of Marinette's mind, whipping out a pair of aviators and sliding them on before leaning casually against the wall. _Nah,_ she drawled. _There's no way. Adrien is much cooler than Chat Noir._

 _But,_ Marinette hedged, only to be cut off by Denial's repeated shushing. Unable to get a word in edgewise, she stayed quiet as Denial continued to reassure her that Adrien and Chat Noir were definitely different people, no doubt about it. After a moment, her shoulders relaxed and she sighed. _Yeah, you're right. He is a big Ladybug fan, so of course he'd know Chat's style pretty well by extension. He's just a hardcore fan._

 _My work here is done,_ Denial whispered, slipping out the door once more, and Marinette waved a cheerful goodbye, feeling much better about the whole thing. Now that she was free of distractions, she zoned back into the conversation, joining in on the last of the chuckles coming from her friends as she tried to act like she'd been paying attention the whole time.

Seeing Marinette snap back to normal reassured Adrien. _Everything's okay,_ he told himself as he leaned over and picked up the orange. _You made everyone laugh and no one's the wiser. Score._

"Alright, Adrien, let's give this another go." Alya motioned for him to give her the orange, which she placed under his chin once more. Timidly, Adrien approached, this time making absolute certain that he had the fruit properly clenched against his sternum before telling Alya he had it. Straightening up, he took a calming breath to steady himself before turning to the girl on his right. He worried that the height difference would present a problem, since even with Marinette stretching up on her tip toes, she was still several inches shorter than him.

"Excuse me," she stuttered as she gently placed her hands on his shoulders, drawing ever closer to him as she drew herself up as high as she could. His nerves were working on overdrive, setting off alarms with every gentle brush of her chest against his, every warm breath that puffed over his cheek and neck. His eyes roved over her face, noting her long eyelashes and counting the adorably tiny freckles that spread over the bridge of her nose. Her chin brushed against his neck as she struggled to get a grip on the orange, and he prayed that she couldn't feel the pounding of his heart.

Blessedly, though Adrien was sad to lose her heat, Marinette soon let him know that she had the orange and he was forced to pull away from her. As the girl turned to Nino to continue the game, Adrien sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat. A sudden shudder went down his spine, and he slowly turned to look to his left, certain he could feel the weight of a certain girl's golden eyes on him. As expected, Alya was staring straight through him to his soul, and Adrien reflexively crossed his arms over his chest, as though the action could protect him from her piercing gaze. The girl simply smirked, raising an eyebrow in a look that clearly said, "I'm know what you're thinking."

Mercifully, Nino and Marinette had managed to exchange the orange between them, and Alya had to release him from her captivating stare to take her turn. Adrien breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize a few seconds later that he was hardly out of the girl's grasp. Alya spun back to him, orange tightly held in the hollow of her throat, with a devious grin on her face.

With what was hopefully an inaudible gulp, Adrien leaned forward to take the fruit from her. When he had it secured, he muttered to Alya that she was good to let go, and she began to pull away. Before she got too far, she leaned towards his ear, whispering slyly, "I'm onto you."

Adrien dropped the orange before she even finished pulling back with a wink, staring dumbly at it as it rolled across the carpet and gently came to a rest against Marinette's socked toes. He wasn't sure whether he should be more embarrassed about the fact that Alya could apparently read minds and now knew about his budding crush on her best friend or that he'd been the only person to drop the ball, as it were, and he'd managed to do it not once, but _twice_.

Was playing dead an option?

Cringing, shoulders hunched in shame, the boy turned towards Alya, heart pounding in anticipation. He'd seen firsthand what kinds of crazy and embarrassing dares the girl could dish out, and while licking Marinette's neck a few nights back had actually been a pleasurable experience, he wasn't sure that in his state of heightened awareness towards her he could handle something so intimate again.

Which is probably why his heart felt like it froze when Alya opened her mouth to announce, "I dare you to kiss our lovely Marinette."

For a moment, Adrien's brain was completely silent. Then, like a roaring tidal wave, all of the anthropomorphic snippets of Adrien's personality began screaming at once. For a solid five seconds, the boy's head was a cacophony of shouts from Libido about all of the highly inappropriate places he should consider kissing his friend, echoing over Denial cowering in the background, hugging himself and rocking in place as he muttered that this situation couldn't be happening. Angel was once again chasing Devil with his frying pan, and everything was nicely accented by Self-Consciousness screaming at him to _do something_ before Marinette got the idea that he didn't like the idea of kissing her.

With that realization, Adrien snapped out of his stupor, reaching out to grasp the girl's shoulders before he was fully aware of what he was doing. He leaned in even as he was internally panicking. This was not how he'd planned on their first kiss happening—though to be fair, he hadn't spent much time imagining it. Still, he was sure this completely unromantic setting was not his ideal. Curse Alya for being so crafty; the girl was slyer than a fox.

As he closed the gap between his face and Marinette's, a lightbulb went off in his head. _Sure, Alya is probably the foxiest person I know—in every sense of the word—but two can play that game._

With that, Adrien unashamedly crossed the last few inches into Marinette's personal space, puckered up, and pecked her sweetly on her blushing cheek.

A stunned silence followed as he casually pulled away, squeezing her shoulders reassuringly as her hand flew up to cover the space his lips had just touched. The girl seemed dazed, and Adrien felt bad for making her so uncomfortable, but he couldn't deny that he had immensely enjoyed the small action.

"That's cheating." Alya did not sound pleased, which caused the satisfied grin on Adrien's face to grow larger. He imagined he looked quite like the cat that ate the canary, which he figured was an apropos observation.

"You just said to kiss her," he pointed out proudly. "You never specified _where_ I was supposed to kiss her."

Alya sighed in disappointment. "And yet, you could've gotten so much more creative."

Adrien tried not to let his mind run away with that comment, with limited success. Thankfully, before he could descend too far into sin, Alya let out another sigh, conceding, "Well, you're not wrong, so I'll consider the dare complete." She reached into her pocket and dug out her phone to check the time. "And with that, children, it would appear that our game is at its end. We have to get back to school."

"We still have what, ten minutes? Why don't we finish the round?" Adrien surprised himself by asking. Even though the first time had made him extremely nervous, he found himself getting addicted to the feeling of Mari's breath on his skin, the scent of her hair, the little relieved sigh she let out when something turned out the way she wanted it to. At this point, any chance he had to be close to her was one he'd take.

Alya mulled the question over for a moment before agreeing with a sharp nod. "Okay, but make it quick. We'll catch hell if we're all late."

Adrien gave her a thumbs up before bending down to grab the orange, which he positioned carefully under his chin. He turned to Marinette, who leaned in with cheeks ablaze, and he was sure that his were equally red. As the girl stood on her tip toes and began adjusting her grip on the orange, all Adrien could do was think, _Don't make it weird, don't make it weird._ He wasn't sure how long he could follow his own advice. Feeling her cheek brush against his jaw made his knees weak, and he was sure the scent of her shampoo would be the death of him. _Asking to finish the round may have been both the best and worst idea I've ever had._

Marinette signaled him a moment later, and they pulled apart slowly. Adrien caught her eye as she stepped away and she looked away quickly, cheeks closely resembling a slapped tomato. Adrien's lips twisted into a frown as she turned to finish the game with Nino, guilt suddenly weighting down his stomach. She seemed embarrassed over the kiss, and all he could do was hope that his actions wouldn't detract from all of the progress they'd made recently.

A sharp elbow in his ribs startled him, and he let out an unmanly yelp. Alya simply raised an eyebrow at him. "As I was saying, now that the round is complete, we really have to get back or Madame will have our asses."

The gaggle of teens agreed, following the bespectacled girl out of Marinette's room. Their hostess quickly replaced the orange they'd been using as a prop and joined them at the door where they all bedecked themselves with their winter gear once more. Once everyone was dressed, they hurried down the stairs and into the bakery to say one last goodbye to their gracious hosts.

"Off to school, are you kids? Have a good afternoon!" Tom smiled at them as he bustled around the small shop. "Oh, and Marinette," he added over his shoulder. "We'll need your help when you get home. We got a big last-minute order and we're going to need all hands on deck."

 _Lightbulb!_ Adrien thought to himself. Briefly running over his afternoon's schedule in his mind, he realized that he was more or less free for the evening—barring one Mandarin tutoring session, but he'd been ahead of the work for weeks so he could surely manage to convince his tutor to let him off the hook just once.

"Sure, Papa, I'll come as soon as school ends," Marinette replied, giving her father a peck on the cheek.

As the large man gave his daughter a bear hug, Adrien offered hesitantly, "If you need extra hands, I'm free this afternoon."

Sabine walked over from behind the register, exchanging a glance with her husband. "Well, dear, if you don't mind helping, we'd very much appreciate it. We'll provide snacks, of course," she told him with a smile as sweet as any of the pastries in her shop.

"Oh, it's no problem. I've been interested in learning how to bake, so my offer isn't entirely selfless." Adrien grinned as the pair laughed at his comment.

"Well, we're always happy to help in that regard," Tom boomed, clapping him on the shoulder. "In fact, come over any time, we'll teach you whatever you want to know."

Adrien thanked him for the offer, and promised to make good on it when he had a chance. After Nino and Alya apologized to the Dupain-Chengs for being unable to assist that evening due to prior engagements, the kids all said goodbye to the couple and exited the bakery into the freezing Parisian winds once more.

As they began making their way towards the crosswalk, Alya pulled her phone from her pocket and checked the time. "Shit! Class starts in three minutes, guys!" Grabbing her boyfriend by the hand, she began sprinting down the sidewalk, auburn hair flying wildly behind her.

Marinette giggled, reaching over to grab Adrien's arm. "Hurry, we're going to be late!"

"You must be rubbing off on us," he teased as they ran after their friends. She turned back to blow a raspberry at him, nearly losing her balance on the slick sidewalk. Adrien grabbed her shoulder, steadying her, before removing his arm from her grip and replacing it with his hand. Mentally counting down the seconds until the bell, the pair resumed their mad dash to the classroom, breathlessly praying that they'd make it in time and avoid a detention.


	8. Chapter 8

For once, the four-person dog pile on the classroom steps wasn't Marinette's fault.

Winded from their sprint through the winter afternoon, Nino had been the first of the group to burst through the door to their classroom, tugging Alya along behind him. Adrien and Marinette bolted through soon after, still clutching hands as they followed close behind their friends. They'd made it into the room mere seconds before the bell and were practically home free; their teacher wasn't even in the classroom yet.

The trouble started when they rounded the corner to take the stairs. Moving too quickly to make the turn next to his seat, Nino flew around the far edge of his and Adrien's desk, his momentum carrying him close to the left side of the steps where Chloé's bag lay. It all happened in the blink of an eye. His foot struck the purse, his ankle twisted, and he let out a most unmanly yelp as he came crashing down, Alya being brought down next to him due to their still linked hands. Marinette squealed as she and Adrien, unable to stop in time, crashed down on top of their fallen friends.

Gasps sounded around the room as their classmates witnessed the disaster, the bell ringing in the background. Rose was the first to react, rushing forward with hands fluttering in distress as she cried, "Oh my gosh, are you guys okay?"

Several groans sounded from the pile of bodies on the floor, echoing over the beginning of Chloe's shrieks about her designer bag and hardly sounding very reassuring. Rose flitted around them in a mild panic until her dark-haired counterpart slipped over and rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"They'll be fine," Juleka promised in her quiet way.

Adrien groaned once more as he shifted himself off of Alya's lower body. "Yeah, don't worry, Rose."

"We're all pretty used to this kind of thing, right Mari?" Nino joked as he helped Marinette roll off of him, and she punched his shoulder weakly at the implication. Alya snorted as she accepted a hand from Adrien to haul herself up with, turning to offer Marinette the same assistance. Rose smiled in relief as Nino grabbed the edge of Chloé's desk and stood, ignoring the squawked complaints of his invasion of her personal space, before waving his limbs around to show the small blonde he was in one piece.

With a satisfied sigh, Rose allowed Juleka to guide her back to her seat, and the four teens remaining in the aisle rushed to their seats before their teacher could enter and find them lingering. As Adrien settled into his normal spot, he slid his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the message thread for his Mandarin tutor, quickly typing out a text in Chinese requesting the afternoon free for an important engagement. Thankfully, his tutor was both a kind and expeditious man, and he received a positive response almost instantly.

With a grin, he tucked his phone back out of sight, just as the teacher entered the room and called for attention. Pulling out his tablet, he did his best to concentrate on taking notes instead of counting down the minutes until the end of the school day.

What seemed like seven years later, the bell rang and signaled the end of their last class. Adrien packed up his tablet faster than usual, practically bouncing at the nearness of his first baking expedition.

Marinette, by contrast, was taking her time to put her materials away, chattering with Alya about some TV show season finale that was happening later that week. Adrien tapped his fingers on his desk in a sharp staccato, trying his best to be patient.

That lasted all of about three seconds.

"Marinette," he called, letting a playful whine creep into his voice as he perched his chin on the edge of her desk, looking up at her with wide eyes. "Hurry up, we have to go help your parents."

Marinette raised an eyebrow in amusement, then smirked as she turned back to her conversation with Alya without responding. Adrien watched as she slowed her movements, now taking twice as long to put her things away.

"Marinette!"

She turned slowly to face him with an innocent look. "Is there something I can help you with, Adrien?"

Her mask of innocence almost broke when his lip pooched out in an adorable pout, but she bit the inside of her cheek to stay strong. She kept up the facade as his emerald eyes widened further, eyebrows turning down in a powerful display of puppy-dog eyes.

She cursed under her breath, finally unable to take it anymore. "Not the puppy-dog eyes," she moaned. "That's cheating!"

Adrien held back his smirk and continued to pout, reaching out to hand her the remainder of the items strewn across her half of the desk. With a defeated frown, she dutifully placed them in her school bag and Adrien smiled, delighted.

"Bastard," Alya observed from her position at the other end of the desk, and Adrien stuck his tongue out at her as he stood to follow Marinette towards the door. Nino chuckled, waving as his friends exited the classroom.

"I give them a week."

Nino raised an eyebrow. "I believe in my boy. He'll be asking her out in the next forty eight hours."

"You're on!"

The short walk to Marinette's house was uneventful, with what Adrien felt was an unfortunate lack of hand-holding. Since lunch, the sun had come out and melted a good portion of the ice on the sidewalk, and the model couldn't quite muster the courage to reach out and take the pink gloved hand swinging next to him without that excuse at the ready.

The bell above the door jingled as they entered, and Tom looked up from the register to greet them. "Welcome back, kids! How was school?"

"Good, Papa," Marinette replied, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she slipped her scarf and gloves off.

Tom smiled, clapping Adrien on the shoulder. "Good, good. Well, Marinette, the two of you should go join your mother in the prep room."

"On it." Marinette gave him a mock-salute, and Adrien imitated the gesture with a grin before trailing after her as she led the way to where her mother was hard at work at a large table, measuring and mixing like a madwoman.

"Maman, we're here to help." Marinette crept up behind the petite woman to give her a quick peck on the cheek, simultaneously dipping her finger in the frosting she was working on.

"Marinette!" Her mother swatted at her, shooing her away.

The girl giggled as she popped her finger in her mouth, spinning away and heading towards the hanging apron rack in the corner with Adrien trailing close behind her. He followed her lead as she snagged an apron off the hook and hung her school bag and winter-wear in its place. With expert precision, Marinette slipped the apron over her head and tied a perfect bow behind her back. Adrien, determined to impress, tossed his own apron on and tried to blindly mimic her actions, his fingers fumbling with the strings.

Marinette grinned as his determined scowl grew more and more frustrated. _He's so cute._

"Here, let me help you," she offered, sliding behind him and quickly bestowing him with a perfect bow as well.

"Thanks." Adrien rubbed the back of his neck as they stepped up to the table together. "I totally could've gotten that with a few more tries."

She smiled knowingly as she led him over to the sink to wash their hands. "Of course." Adrien stuck his tongue out at her and she returned the gesture.

Sabine chuckled, setting her bowl of frosting down on the table. "Now that you two are all suited up, I'll have you start helping me by making three batches of chocolate cupcakes and three batches of vanilla." She stepped to a nearby counter, rifling through a box momentarily before returning with two pieces of laminated card stock. Handing one to each of them, she added, "Here are the recipes. Marinette, help Adrien if he needs it."

"Sure thing, Maman." She skipped over to the cupboard, tossing the doors open to reveal several large mixing bowls stacked on the shelves. Standing on her tip-toes, she stretched her arm as high as it could reach, barely missing her target.

"Mari, do you need h-"

"I've got this," she cut the boy off, determined to reach her goal. _I forgot how tall these stupid shelves are. Where's my stool when I need it?_

Adrien and Sabine smiled in amusement as they watched her hop repeatedly, still failing to grasp the bowls.

"Marine-"

Ignoring her mother-who really should've been more sympathetic to her plight given her similarly petite stature-Marinette slung one leg up onto the counter.

"Marinette." Her mother's tone held significantly more warning now.

"But Maman, I can do it!"

"Be that as it may, it's unhygienic and we must keep our customers in mind."

Grumbling reluctantly, Marinette removed her leg from the counter. Adrien chuckled, then grinned as an idea popped into his head. Before the girl could move away from the counter, he slipped up behind her and placed his hands on either side of her waist.

"Upsy-daisy!" he cried, lifting her into the air as though she hardly weighed anything. _Thank goodness for those Chat Noir muscles._

Marinette squealed at her sudden ascension. "Adrien!" She broke into giggles as she grabbed the bowls they needed off of the shelf and was set gently back onto the floor.

"Did it," she said smugly as she showed off her prize, as though Adrien had had no part in helping her achieve her goal.

"All by yourself, huh?" he played along, chuckling when she nodded with an impish grin.

Sabine laughed quietly behind them. "All right, you two, get to work."

Marinette put on a serious expression. "These cupcakes aren't going to bake themselves, after all."

"Really?" Adrien asked. "I've always thought the cupcakes from this bakery were pretty magical." Marinette groaned at the joke and he smiled innocently. "What? I'm just saying, I could see it."

The girl didn't dignify that with a response as she set their bowls on the table. She dragged over a bag of flour that was sitting next to her mother, setting it between herself and Adrien.

"Alright, first we'll each need one and a half cups of flour." Marinette handed him a measuring cup, raising an eyebrow as he accepted it. "You ready for this?"

"Sure." He shrugged with a grin. "How hard can it be?"

How quickly he had forgotten his pancake-making disaster.

It took approximately thirty seconds for Adrien to spill half of his cup of flour over the edge of his bowl and all over the front of his apron. He stared down at the white patch in shock.

Marinette stifled her giggles with the back of her wrist. "How did that even happen?"

"I'm honestly not sure." Adrien eyed the measuring cup suspiciously before setting it down with a sigh. "I guess baking isn't for me."

"Are you kidding? Making a mess is the best part," Marinette informed him, dipping a finger in the pile of flour in front of him before swiping it down the bridge of his nose. As he squawked in surprise she chirped, "See? Fun!"

"Yes, Marinette would know all about making messes," Sabine interjected mischievously, ignoring the glare her daughter was sending her. "A tidy seamstress she may be, but a neat baker she is not."

"You don't have to tell him all that," Marinette grumbled as she crossed the room to grab a new bag of sugar. Ignoring the chuckling from those still at the table, she stomped back over with the bag in hand, chin held high in defiance. She was nearly back to the the table when she found her missing stool.

Of course, she managed to find it with her right foot, her ankle twisting under her as she began to fall with a gasp. She heard Adrien yelp her name from in front of her, leaping forward to assist, but he was at the far end of the table and she knew he'd never make it.

Thankfully, he didn't have to. Her years of training kicked in-for once-and her Ladybug reflexes helped her clutch the bag of sugar to her chest as she planted one hand on the floor. Using her momentum to her advantage, Marinette pushed with the leg still touching the ground, launching herself into a graceful one-handed walkover. She stuck the landing, bringing her upper body back up with ease, and continued walking as though nothing had happened.

Setting the bag of sugar on the table, she looked up to find her Adrien staring at her with his mouth agape as her mother smiled slightly in amusement. With a giggle, she placed the tip of her index finger under the boy's chin, gently pushing upward until his mouth was shut once more. "Cat got your tongue?"

"S-Something like that," he managed to mutter in his dazed state. While he'd seen Marinette trip and fall dozens of times, he'd never seen her catch herself, especially not in such a beautiful way. He'd never realized she was so flexible.

Before Lust could even pipe up from his dark cell in Adrien's brain, the thought brought an unwitting blush to his face, and the boy cleared his throat in an attempt to also clear his mind and steer himself away from the dangerous path he'd been about to take.

 _You are learning well, my young padawan._

 _Shut up, Lust!_

"Adrien, are you listening to me?" Marinette's voice snapped him from his thoughts and he looked over to see her standing with her arms crossed, one hip cocked as she looked at him with a smirk. The familiar aura tickled something inside of him, and suddenly he found his verbal footing.

"No."

Well, not the witty response he'd hoped for, but at least he could speak without stuttering again.

Marinette frowned for a second, before bursting out in laughter. "You're not even going to pretend you were?"

"Well I know how you feel about liars. I have to keep my good standing and all."

"You're so odd," she replied with a grin and a shake of her head.

"You have to be odd to be number one."

Marinette rolled her eyes as she walked back to the sink to rewash her hands, exchanging glances with her mother, who wore a telling smile of approval. A timer dinged behind them and Sabine moved to take her cupcakes out of the oven, commenting quietly in slow Mandarin as she passed, "He is a very funny and kind boy, a good match for you."

"Maman!" Marinette hissed quietly, cheeks flushing. "He also knows Chinese!"

"Oh," Sabine said, eyes widening in surprise. She smiled pleasantly, sending her daughter a conspiratorial wink. "All the more reason to keep him."  
"Maman!"

Adrien's face heated up, cheeks presumably changing to match his classmate's, but even through his embarrassment a little flutter of pleasure went through him. _Her mom approves of me, score!_ According to Nino, parental approval was often the hardest part of a relationship.

Not that he was thinking of having a relationship with Mari, he recanted. Not a lot, anyways. Definitely not more than once a day.

"Anyways," Marinette said hurriedly, nudging him in the ribs with a sharp elbow, "let's get back to work."

They worked in silence, Adrien watching and mirroring his classmate's movements to the best of his ability. He was pleasantly surprised when, after thoroughly mixing the more-or-less carefully measured ingredients, his cupcake batter actually came out looking like cupcake batter. He happily presented Marinette with the bowl, and she giggled, giving him an approving thumbs up.

"Looks great, Adrien. That wasn't so hard was it?"

Adrien grinned sheepishly as he brushed a little more flour off of his apron. "Not at all."

"Now it's time to bake them." Marinette crossed the kitchen to the cabinet they'd gotten the bowls from earlier and quickly pulled down a cupcake tin with the help of her recovered stool. As she headed back to the big center table, her mother handed her the one she'd just finished removing cupcakes from.

Grabbing two stacks of brightly colored cupcake liners, she began her explanation of the procedure. "So you're going to take these-" she handed him the green baking cups "-and put one in each of the spaces." Adrien quickly did as instructed as she bedecked her own pan with pink liners. Once they had both finished she passed him a batter scoop. "Now you're going to use this to scoop the same amount of batter into each cup. You want it about halfway full." She paused to demonstrate. "Try not to get it on the pan or the outside of the cupcake liners."

"Got it." Adrien hesitantly scooped up some batter and carefully transferred it to the pan, sighing in relief when he managed to fill the cup without spilling a drop. Marinette gave him a proud smile, and the two set to work emptying their bowls into the pans.

Once the trays had been popped into the oven, Sabine kept them busy with one task after the next, the room becoming a flurry of activity as the teens bent to her every whim. Though surprisingly taxing, Adrien found the work fascinating and was sad when the last cupcake had finally been cooled, decorated, and boxed for delivery. Marinette clearly shared the sentiment, fingers lingering on the box's bow, making minute adjustments idly in an excuse to drag the evening on.

Sabine smiled, easily reading their faces. Dusting her hands on her apron, she stepped away from the table. "I think I'll go check on your father, Marinette. Would you and Adrien finish cleaning up, please?"

The girl flashed her mother a grateful, if embarrassed smile. "Of course, Maman." Her mother returned the smile, slipping out of her apron and gently tossing it over a hook as she padded out of the room.

There was a slight pause in the moment after she exited, the teens adjusting to being left to their own devices. Adrien picked up a discarded spatula and fiddled with it, and Marinette pulled at the hem of her apron, both wondering how it could suddenly feel so awkward to be alone together.

Thankfully, Adrien knew the perfect way to break the tension.

"Why was the baker in a panic?"

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "Is this another terrible joke?"

"A terribly good one," he replied with a wink.

The girl scoffed and rolled her eyes, but humored him and took a moment to think of an answer. "Was it because…he forgot to get flours for his anniversary and was afraid his girlfriend's anger would rise?"

Adrien chuckled. "No, but that's not a bad try." He paused for effect. "It's because he was in a loaf or death situation."

Marinette blocked her giggle with a groan. "I think your jokes get worse by the day." She scooped up a bowl and stepped over to the sink, beginning to run the water to clean the dishes.

"Maybe you've just got a _rye_ sense of humor."

She huffed as she picked up the sponge. "Don't quit your day job, Adrien."

"As if Father would let me," he mumbled, grabbing the rest of the dirty dishes and moving to stand beside her. He swished his hands in the warm, soapy water, each popping bubble seeming to represent the seconds ticking by until he'd have to return home to his gilded cage of a life.

Though Marinette hadn't heard the comment fully, she caught on to his suddenly sour mood quickly. Forehead crinkling, she splashed a little water at his hands, prompting a small smile from the boy. He splashed back gently, and she giggled, quickly retaliating.

That was a mistake.

Adrien's eyes widened, before narrowing in challenge. His gaze zeroed in on her, and his hand moved swiftly and accurately, like a cat pouncing on its prey, the resulting wave soaking most of her left forearm and some of her apron.

She gasped, scandalized, and splashed back with force, leaving a large wet spot in the middle of his apron.

From there it was an all-out war. Ammo was limited to the soapy, somewhat batter-filled water filling the sink, until Adrien discovered the hose.

In her excitement, Marinette had forgotten about the little extension that sat next to the faucet, until suddenly Adrien whipped it out and pulled the handle, blasting her right in the face with a jet of water. She sputtered under the deluge, hands leaving the sink to wipe at her eyes as she coughed.

Adrien stopped quickly, rushing to make sure she was okay, and in that moment where he dropped his guard she swooped in to steal the weapon and turn it on him.

It was unusually bad luck for her that her mother happened to reenter the room as she was giggling maniacally, Adrien shielding his face and protesting through his laughter as she sprayed him mercilessly, water puddling on the floor.

"Marinette!"

The sharpness of Sabine's voice, only slightly softened by an edge of astonished amusement, stopped the girl in her tracks, the hose falling from her hand as she gasped and turned to face her mother. She hung her head in shame, soggy pigtails sitting limp on her shoulders as she scuffed her soaked shoes against the equally wet floor. Adrien assumed a similar position next to her.

"I thought I asked you two to clean up," she commented as she surveyed the room, which had only become more of a disaster since she'd left.

"Sorry, Maman. We got…carried away." Adrien nodded in bashful agreement with Marinette's statement, daring a peek up through his bangs at his hostess.

Sabine smiled gently at him, sighing as she placed her hands on her hips. "Well, get this mess cleaned up—and I mean actually cleaned up this time—and then come upstairs for dinner." She turned to the boy, inquiring, "You'll be joining us, right, Adrien?"

He glanced at the clock on the wall, heart twisting with longing, before letting out a reluctant sigh. "I don't think I can, but thank you so much for your hospitality, as always." From the corner of his eye, he could see Marinette sag at his response, and his heart sunk a little lower.

"Of course, Adrien, you're welcome anytime." Sabine smiled at him, then instructed them once more to return the room to its rightful state before heading back to the storefront.

Marinette tapped her toes against the floor, splashing in the puddle at her feet. She nibbled on her lower lip for a moment and Adrien's heart skipped a beat as her bluebell eyes peered up at him. "I guess your dad will miss you, huh?"

He cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, yes. I wish I could stay, beyond just cleaning this up."

She nodded in understanding, looking down again with a sigh before straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin. "Well, we'd better get on with it then. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"Right." Adrien forced his body into sluggish movements alongside hers, helping to finish the dishes and wipe all of the water off the floor. It seemed like mere seconds had passed when suddenly there was nothing else to clean, and the two stilled into awkward silence again.

Adrien cleared his throat once more, reluctantly moving towards the hooks that held their winter things. "I supposed I'd better get going."

"I suppose so," she agreed, removing her apron and hanging it to dry next to his. She gathered her things to take upstairs as he slowly put on his coat and scarf, slipping his fingers into his gloves with more care than necessary.

When he was ready, she walked him to the side door. They paused for a moment, and he asked that she thank her parents again for the afternoon, and she replied that she would before they fell into silence for the umpteenth time.

"I'd better go," Adrien said awkwardly, heart twisting again as his hand twisted the door handle, as if there were a physical connection between the two.

"Goodbye, Adrien," Marinette replied softly

Her sweet voice stirred up something unexpected in him, causing him to blurt out, "Will you go out with me on Friday?"

She gaped at him for a moment, cheeks turning a delicious cherry-red that he felt surely matched the shade of his. "I—go—like a date?" Her voice went up cutely into a squeak at the end.

"Like—like a date," he stammered in confirmation, heart aflutter. "It doesn't have to be anything spectacular, but I've been enjoying hanging out with you so much I thought, maybe, we could go to the park or get hot chocolate or something." His cheeks turned impossibly redder. "I just want to be around you more."

Marinette was grinning so hard she thought her cheeks would break. "Of course!" Hugging her things to her chest, she suppressed a squeal. "Text me later?"

Adrien sighed in relief at her answer. "Definitely." With another shy smile and a quick goodbye, he hurried out into the cold air, barely able to make it around the corner before whooping in laughter.

"I can't believe I just did that!" he whispered to the sky, fists raised in happy success. He practically skipped down the sideway, making it several yards before reality kicked in and he paused with a groan. "I can't believe I just did that without asking my father."

He allowed himself a moment to wallow, before straightening his shoulders and quickening his pace. He'd just have to confront his father when he arrived home and ask him for permission to go out Friday evening.

That was sure to go over well. He resolved to leave Plagg in his room when the time came, to limit his bad luck as much as possible.

Resolved, he spent the rest of the all too short walk home planning out exactly what he'd say to his father upon his arrival.


End file.
